IVERSITVUF 
•LIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO 


\ 


HO1T.  JOKBT.P  HALE 

LATE  U.S.SEM'KIR  FE(M  NEW  BAMP.<{HTRV . 


THE  STATUE 


JOHN  P.  HALE 


ERECTED   IN  FRONT   OF   THE   CAPITOL, 
AND   PRESENTED   TO   THE 


STATE  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

BY 

WILLIAM  E.  CHANDLER 

1  OP  CONCORD. 

I 

AN   ACCOUNT    OF  ITHE    UNVEILING    CEREMONIES   ON 

AUGUST  3,  1892, 

WITH  A  REPORT  OF  THE  ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  BY  THE  DONOR  AND 

His  EXCELLENCY  GOVERNOR  HIRAM  A.  TUTTLE, 

COUNCILLOR   GEORGE   A.   RAMSDELL,   CHAIRMAN,   AND   MESSRS. 

DANIEL  HALL,  GALUSHA  A.  GROW,  GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL, 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS,  AUGUSTUS  WOODBURY, 

AMOS  HADLEY,  AND  ALONZO   H.  QUINT. 


Published  by  Direction  of  the  Governor  and  Council. 

.     ' 
CONCORD,  N.  H.: 

REPUBLICAN    PRESS    ASSOCIATION,   RAILROAD    SQUARE. 
1892. 


THE   HALE   STATUE. 


The  statue  of  JOIEST  PARKER  HALE,  of  Dover, 
"New  Hampshire,  now  standing  in  front  of  the  capi- 
tol  at  Concord,  was  tendered  to  the  state  by  a  let 
ter,  as  follows : 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE, 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  April  14,  1890. 

To  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire : 
GENTLEMEN  :  —  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that  I  have 
made  a  contract  for  the  erection  of  a  statue  of  John  P. 
Hale  in  the  state  house  yard  at  Concord,  which  I  hereby 
donate  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  and  ask  the  accept 
ance  thereof. 

The  statue  will  be  of  the  same  size  as  that  of  Daniel 
Webster,  now  in  the  state  house  yard,  and  will  be  cast  at 
the  same  bronze  foundry  in  Munich  after  designs  of  Mr.  F. 
Von  Miller,  artist  and  director  of  the  bronze  foundry.  It 
is  expected  that  the  statue  will  be  ready  and  in  place  for 
um7eiling  in  the  month  of  September,  1891. 

I  have  requested  Col.  Daniel  Hall  to  present  this  com 
munication. 

Respectfully, 

WM.  E.  CHANDLER. 

On  April  22  the  offer  was  considered  at  a  meet 
ing,  in  Concord,  of  the  governor  and  council ;  pres- 


4  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ent  :  Hon.  David  A.  Taggart,  president  of  the  sen 
ate,  acting  as  governor,  and  Councillors  Charles  H. 
Horton,  Edward  C.  Shirley,  "William  S.  Pillsbury, 
and  Frank  C.  Churchill. 

On  motion  of  Councillor  Horton, — 

Voted,  That  the  governor  and  council,  in  behalf 
of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  cordially  and  grate 
fully  accept  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  donated  to 
the  state  by  the  Honorable  "William  E.  Chandler, 
and  will  reserve  for  it  an  eligible  site  in  the  state 
house  yard,  to  be  determined  hereafter  in  confer 
ence  with  Mr.  Chandler  or  his  representative. 

On  November  6, 1890,  a  vote  was  adopted  by  the 
governor  and  council  exactly  fixing  the  site,  as  fol 
lows  : 

On  motion  of  Councillor  Pillsbury,  it  was  voted 
to  grant  to  Hon.  William  E.  Chandler  a  plot  of 
ground  in  the  state  house  yard  as  a  site  for  the 
statue  of  John  P.  Hale  ;  the  plot  to  be  in  the  front 
of  the  yard,  next  to  Park  street,  north  of  the  cen 
tral  walk,  and  occupying  a  position  corresponding 
to  that  granted  for  the  erection  of  the  Stark  statue. 

There  was  delay  in  the  completion  of  the  statue 
until  the  summer  of  1892.  On  the  28th  day  of 
June,  at  the  suggestion  of  Senator  Chandler,  Coun 
cillors  George  A.  Ramsdell  and  Henry  B.  Quinby, 
with  Secretary  of  State  Ezra  S.  Stearns,  were  desig 
nated  by  His  Excellency  Governor  Hiram  A.  Tut- 
tle  as  a  committee  of  arrangements  to  prepare  for 
the  unveiling  and  the  acceptance  of  the  statue  ;  and 
Col.  Daniel  Hall  was  designated  and  invited  as 
orator  of  the  occasion. 

The  ceremonies  took  place  on  the  third  day  of 


THE    HALE    STATUE.  5 

August,  1892.     The  final  instrument  of  conveyance 
of  the  statue  to  the  state  is  as  follows  : 

CONCORD,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  August  third,  1892. 
The  bronze  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  this  day  unveiled  in 
the  state  house  yard  at  Concord,  and  the  granite  pedestal 
and  the  bronze  tablets  thereon,  are  hereby  given  and  con 
veyed  by  me  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  uncondition 
ally  and  forever. 

WILLIAM  E.  CHANDLER. 

The  statue  is  of  heroic  size,  standing  eight  feet 
and  four  inches  above  the  die.  It  represents  Sena 
tor  Hale  as  an  orator,  wearing  an  open  frock  coat, 
with  a  small  roll  in  his  pendant  left  hand,  while  the 
right  arm  and  open  hand  and  fingers  are  extended 
in  an  expressive  gesture.  The  form  and  face  make 
an  excellent  likeness,  and  the  statue  as  a  work  of 
art  has  been  commended  by  all  observers. 

The  pedestal  is  of  Concord  granite,  cut  by  the 
New  England  Granite  "Works,  of  Concord.  This 
rises  nine  feet  and  eight  inches,  making  the  whole 
monument  eighteen  feet  high.  The  die  is  three 
feet  and  nine  inches  square,  and  rests  on  three 
bases  :  the  first,  eight  feet  square  and  fifteen  inches 
thick  ;  the  second,  five  and  one  half  feet  square  and 
fourteen  inches  thick  ;  and  the  third,  five  feet  square 
and  twenty  inches  thick. 

The  statue  faces  east.  On  the  front  of  the  ped 
estal,  in  heavy  raised  letters  cut  in  the  granite,  is 
the  name, — 

JOHN    P.   HALE. 

On  the  three  other  sides  are  bronze  tablets  ;  that 
on  the  north  inscribed, — 


6  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

JOHN  P.  HALE. 

FIRST  ANTI-SLAVERY  U.  S.  SENATOR. 

HE  SECURED  THE  ABOLITION   OF  FLOGGING 

AND  THE  SPIRIT  RATION   IN  THE   NAVY. 

BORN  AT  ROCHESTER   18O6. 

DIED  AT  DOVER   1873. 

The  south  tablet  contains,  from  Mr.  Hale's  North 
Church  address  of  June  5,  1845,  the  sentence, — 

THE  MEASURE  OF  MY  AMBITION  WILL  BE 
FULL  IF  WHEN  MY  WIFE  AND  CHILDREN 
SHALL  REPAIR  TO  MY  GRAVE  TO  DROP 
THE  TEAR  OF  AFFECTION  TO  MY  MEMORY 
THEY  MAY  READ  ON  MY  TOMBSTONE, 
HE  WHO  LIES  BENEATH  SURRENDERED 
OFFICE,  PLACE  AND  POWER  RATHER 
THAN  BOW  DOWN  AN  D  WORSH  I  P  SLAVERY. 


On  the  rear  are  the  words,- 


PRESENTED  TO  THE 

STATE   OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

BY  WILLIAM   E.  CHANDLER 

OF  CONCORD. 

1892. 


The  artist  who  designed  and  made  the  statue  is 
Ferdinand  Yon  Miller,  Junior,  manager  of  the 
Royal  Art  Foundry  at  Munich  in  Bavaria,  a  sketch 
of  whose  life  and  works  is  given  in  this  memorial 
volume. 

August  third,  1892,  the  day  of  the  unveiling 
ceremonies,  was  fair,  and  the  attendance  was  unex 
pectedly  large,  although  no  special  invitations  had 
been  given.  At  half-past  eleven  o'clock  a  proces 
sion  left  the  Eagle  Hotel,  conducted  by  City  Mar 
shal  Gr.  Scott  Locke,  and  headed  by  Governor  Tut- 
tle  and  Councillor  Ramsdell,  who  acted  as  chair 
man  of  the  proceedings.  Besides  those  who  took 
part  in  the  exercises,  there  were  present  Mrs.  John 


THE    HALE   STATUE.  7 

P.  Hale,  Mrs.  William  E.  Chandler  and  John  Par 
ker  Hale  Chandler,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  H. 
Jaques,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  D.  Chandler  and 
their  son  Clark,  and  also  ex-Governors  Nathaniel 
S.  Berry,  of  Bristol,  James  A.  Weston,  of  Man 
chester,  Benjamin  F.  Prescott,  of  Epping,  and 
David  H.  Goodell,  of  Antrim,  and  many  state  offi 
cials  and  prominent  citizens. 

From  Rochester,  Mr.  Hale's  birthplace,  were 
present  the  following  : 

Mayor  Charles  S.  Whitehouse  ;  Councilmen  Jo 
seph  Warren,  William  Flagg,  George  A.  Bick- 
ford,  Charles  W.  Allen,  and  George  A.  Bickford, 
Jr. ;  City  Solicitor  George  E.  Cochrane,  Chief- 
Engineer  Fire  Department  William  C.  Sanborn, 
and  City  Clerk  Charles  W.  Brown. 

From  Dover,  Mr.  Hale's  home,  came  the  follow 
ing  delegation  : 

Henry  R.  Parker,  Mayor;  Eli  Y.  Brewster, 
Charles  H.  Horton,  and  Richard  N".  Ross,  ex- 
Mayors  ;  Charles  W.  Smith,  President  of  the  Com 
mon  Council  ;  Herman  W.  Stevens,  City  Clerk; 
George  H.  Demeritt,  Messenger ;  William  E. 
Whiteley,  Clerk  of  Common  Council;  Joseph  T. 
Woodbury,  George  W.  ^N~ute,  Willard  T.  Sanborn, 
Daniel  A.  Nute,  Charles  E.  Burnham,  Charles 
Porter,  Charles  H.  Foss,  Albert  G.  Neal,  John  J. 
McCann,  and  John  Killoren,  Aldermen;  John  W. 
Merrow,  Fred  E.  Quimby,  John  F.  Stevens,  Alfred 
R.  Sayer,  John  A.  Goodwin,  Erastus  A.  Crawford, 
Charles  L.  Ricker,  John  W.  Felch,  Andrew  P. 
Folsom,  Charles  F.  Sawyer,  Charles  H.  Morang, 
Peter  Murphy,  Patrick  E.  Mallon,  and  James 


8  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

Cassidy,  Councilmen;  "William  F.  ISTason,  City 
Solicitor;  also  Prof.  Sylvester  Waterhouse,  Messrs. 
John  Scales,  Joshua  L.  Foster,  Elisha  R.  Brown, 
Joseph  S.  Abbott,  Oliver  A.  Gibbs,  Joseph  A. 
Peirce,  Daniel  H.  Wendell,  Charles  H.  Trickey, 
Eben  C.  Berry,  William  D.  Taylor,  Fred  H.  Foss, 
Theodore  Woodman,  Joseph  Hayes,  Samuel  C. 
Fisher,  William  Sterns,  Charles  A.  Faxon,  George 
F.  Morrill,  John  C.  Tasker,  Everett  O.  Foss, 
Charles  Wood,  and  Mrs.  Daniel  Hall,  Mrs.  E.  E. 
Brown,  Mrs.  A.  H.  Young,  Mrs.  Frank  Hobbs, 
Mrs.  James  H.  Wheeler,  Miss  Mary  A.  Hoitt,  Miss 
Mary  Woodman,  Miss  Susan  Woodman,  Miss  Kate 
Adams,  Miss  C.  Wood,  and  Mrs.  Durgin. 

The  exercises  were  conducted  at  the  right  of  the 
statue  upon  a  raised  platform,  which  was  in  charge 
of  Col.  J.  W.  Robinson.  During  the  hour  preced 
ing,  a  concert  was  given  by  the  band  of  the  Third 
Regiment,  New  Hampshire  National  Guard,  under 
the  direction  of  Mr.  Arthur  F.  Nevers.  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  addresses,  a  collation  was  served 
by  the  state  authorities  at  the  Eagle  Hotel,  accom 
panied  by  music  from  Blaisdell's  orchestra. 


UNVEILING  CEREMONIES. 


At  half-past  eleven  the  assemblage  was  called  to 
order  by  Councillor  Ramsdell,  the  chairman,  who, 
after  music,  said  : 

It  is  our  custom,  upon  the  threshold  of  important 
occasions,  to  pause  and  recognize  the  Divine  pres 
ence.  It  is  highly  appropriate  that  we  do  so  at  this 
time.  Let  silence  be  observed  while  Rev.  Dr. 
Quint  invokes  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God. 

Rev.  Dr.  Alonzo  H.  Quint  then  offered  prayer  ; 
after  which  followed  the 

ADDRESS    OF    COUNCILLOR    GEORGE    A.  RAMSDELL. 

FELLOW  CITIZENS  :  —  On  the  22d  day  of  April, 
1890,  Senator  William  E.  Chandler  communicated 
to  the  executive  department  his  purpose  to  present 
to  the  state  a  statue  of  the  late  John  Parker  Hale. 
Governor  David  H.  Goodell  and  his  council  made 
it  a  matter  of  record  that  the  state  would  gladly 
accept  the  gift,  and  soon  after  set  apart  a  portion 
of  the  state  house  yard  for  its  reception. 

A  month  ago  the  senator  made  a  second  com 
munication  announcing  the  arrival  of  the  statue 
from  Europe,  and  his  desire  to  present  it  to  the 
state  upon  the  third  day  of  August,  1892. 


10  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

His  Excellency  Governor  Tuttle  at  once  ap 
pointed  a  committee  of  the  council  with  the  secre 
tary  of  state,  to  make  arrangements  for  a  proper 
ceremonial  at  the  unveiling.  In  consultation  with 
the  governor  and  the  donor,  such  arrangements 
have  been  made  as  seemed  to  befit  the  occasion, 
and  we  are  assembled  to  uncover  and  take  to  the 
care  of  the  state  a  statue  of  this  noble  son  of  New 
Hampshire 

[The  speaker  at  this  point  recognized  ex-Go v. 
Nathaniel  S.  Berry,  who  had  been  escorted  to  the 
platform  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  ex-Senator  James 
~W.  Patterson,  and  given  a  seat  near  the  presiding 
officer.] 

It  is  an  agreeable  duty,  easily  performed,  to  wel 
come  this  gathering  of  my  fellow-citizens  from  all 
parts  of  the  state.  Nor  is  it  less  agreeable,  or  an 
office  more  difficult  of  execution,  to  extend  a  greet 
ing  to  these  distinguished  men  about  me,  repre 
senting  our  own  and  other  states,  not  a  few  of 
whom  have  received  high  honors  at  the  hands  of 
their  fellow-men.  But  what  shall  I  say  to  this  aged 
man,  for  two  years  our  war  governor,  who,  bend 
ing  beneath  the  weight  of  fourscore  and  fifteen 
years,  prompted  by  a  great  love,  has  come  from  his 
retirement  to  take  part  in  the  exercises  of  this  day? 
How  shall  I  address  this  favorite  of  heaven  ?  No 
words  of  mine  can  express  the  thought  which  I  see 
pictured  in  the  faces  of  all  within  sound  of  my 
voice.  But,  as  my  eyes  [turning  to  the  statue  of 
Webster]  rest  upon  those  lips  of  bronze,  I  am 
moved  to  say, — "  Venerable  man  :  you  have  come 
down  to  us  from  a  former  generation.  Providence 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  11 

hath  bountifully  lengthened  out  your  life,  that  you 
might  behold  this  glorious  occasion." 

Resuming  my  theme :  We  have  come  together  to 
uncover  and  take  to  the  care  of  the  state  a  statue 
of  this  noble  son  of  New  Hampshire,  whose  com 
manding  presence,  liberal  culture,  stirring  elo 
quence,  and,  more  than  all,  whose  dauntless  moral 
courage  made  him  such  a  mighty  factor  in  the 
formation  of  that  public  sentiment  which  made  it 
possible  for  this  nation  in  God's  own  time  to  throw 
off  the  institution  of  slavery  which  had  come  down 
to  us,  an  almost  fatal  legacy,  from  an  earlier  gen 
eration  and  a  ruder  civilization. 

The  number  of  memorials  of  this  character  be 
longing  to  the  state  is  small.  They  can  be  enu 
merated  in  a  few  moments,  and  upon  the  fingers  of 
one  hand. 

Forty  years  ago,  in  recognition  of  his  great  ser 
vice  in  the  early  history  of  our  national  existence, 
there  was  erected  by  the  state,  in  the  town  of 
Hampton  Falls,  upon  our  limited  sea  coast,  a  mar 
ble  shaft  to  the  memory  of  Mesheck  Weare,  who, 
during  the  stormy  years  from  1776  to  1785,  was  at 
the  head  of  civil  affairs  in  New  Hampshire. 

One  third  of  a  century  after  this  work  was  done 
and  when  it  seemed  that  no  more  names,  illustrious 
in  our  history  before  the  Civil  War,  were  to  be  per 
petuated  in  bronze  and  stone,  a  distinguished  citi 
zen  of  Massachusetts,  always  loyal  to  the  place  of 
his  birth,  presented  to  the  state  that  statue  of  Dan 
iel  Webster,  whose  peerless  intellect  and  patriotic 
statesmanship  have  given  our  small  commonwealth 
a  name  throughout  the  world. 


12  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

Yonder  statue  of  Stark  has  been  but  recently 
placed  upon  its  foundation  by  the  state,  in  obedi 
ence  to  a  popular  demand  that  our  most  prominent 
figure  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution, — the  man  who, 
iii  that  great  contest,  with  no  authority  but  the 
commission  of  the  state  of  ]STew  Hampshire  in  his 
pocket,  and  (may  I  not  say  it)  with  few  men  be 
hind  him  save  the  citizen  soldiers  of  our  state, 
fought  a  decisive  battle, — should  have,  in  addition 
to  his  great  fame  already  secured,  all  the  immortal 
ity  that  bronze  and  granite  can  give. 

There  is,  at  Thornton's  Ferry,  upon  a  lot  and 
foundation  furnished  by  the  town  of  Merrimack,  a 
substantial  granite  monument  awaiting  dedication, 
placed  there  by  the  state  in  memory  of  the  distin 
guished  services  of  Matthew  Thornton,  illustrious 
not  only  as  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  but  also  as  a  co-worker  with  Weare 
and  others — a  galaxy  of  noble  men — in  laying  the 
foundations  of  our  state  government. 

The  last  legislature  made  an  appropriation  to 
assist  the  towns  of  Peterborough  and  Temple  in 
building  a  highway  and  establishing  a  public  park 
upon  a  mountain  rising  majestically  upon  their 
borders  and  overlooking,  like  some  giant  sentinel, 
upon  one  hand,  the  place  of  the  birth  of  General 
James  Miller,  and  on  the  other,  the  place  of  his  de 
cease,  to  the  end  that  the  memory  of  this  rugged 
old  soldier,  so  creditable  to  our  state,  perish  not 
from  the  minds  of  men  so  long  as  these  evidences 
of  man's  work  upon  that  granite  mountain  shall 
endure. 

The  list  is  not  long  :   Weare,  Webster,  Stark, 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  13 

Thornton,  Miller ;  but,  God  willing,  another  name 
shall  be  added  before  the  sun  goes  down. 

The  statue  will  now  be  unveiled  by  John  Parker 
Hale  Chandler,  a  son  of  the  donor  and  grandson  of 
the  senator  to  whose  memory  it  is  erected. 

At  twelve  o'clock  Master  John  Parker  Hale 
Chandler,  a  boy  of  seven  years,  pulled  the  cord 
which  lowered  the  United  States  flag  which  had 
covered  the  statue,  and  the  unveiling  was  accom 
plished  amid  cheers  from  the  assembly  and  music 
from  the  band. 

The  chairman  then  said  : 

Senator  Chandler,  have  you  at  this  time  any 
communication  to  make  to  the  state,  represented 
by  His  Excellency  Governor  Tuttle  ? 

SENATOR   WILLIAM    E.    CHANDLER'S    ADDRESS    OF 
PRESENTATION. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  : — John  P.  Hale  was  three  times 
elected  United  States  senator  from  ISTew  Hamp 
shire  by  legislatures  sitting  in  the  capitol  edifice 
within  the  precincts  where  we  to-day  assemble. 
The  statue  here  erected  and  now  exhibited  to  view 
I  have  thought  might  not  inappropriately  be  pre 
sented  by  me  to  the  state  of  ]STew  Hampshire  and 
the  city  of  Concord,  for  I  was  born  in  yonder  house, 
the  nearest  to  the  capitol  ;  have  been  twice  here 
chosen  senator,  succeeding  to  the  term  forty  years 
after  Mr.  Hale's  first  election  ;  and,  moreover,  am 
able  to  rejoice  in  my  relation  to  that  child  of  prom 
ise,  who,  as  the  only  male  descendant  of  Mr.  Hale 


14  THE  HALE  STATUE. 

and  bearing  his  name,  has  this  day  fittingly  un 
veiled  the  statue  of  his  grandfather. 

Governor  Tuttle,  to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire, 
through  your  excellency,  I  now  tender,  by  a  proper 
writing  of  conveyance,  this  statue  of  one  of  New 
Hampshire's  foremost  sons. 

As  a  work  of  art,  it  cannot,  I  think,  be  justly 
criticised  ;  and,  as  a  likeness  in  face  and  form, 
it  must  be  received  as  being  as  good  as  could 
be  expected  in  a  design  made  from  photographs 
never  fully  satisfactory  to  the  family  or  friends. 

It  is  a  high  pleasure  to  me  to  give  the  statue  to 
my  native  state  and  city  as  an  evidence  of  the 
strong  affection  which  I  bear  to  my  home  and  of 
my  appreciation  of  the  kindnesses  and  honors 
which  its  citizens  have  so  lavishly  bestowed  upon 
me. 

Statues  of  the  illustrious  dead  and  memorial 
arches  and  monuments  are  principally  valuable  for 
the  lessons  which  they  teach  to  new  generations. 

No  inculcation  has  sprung  from  any  life  more 
noble  than  the  one  inspired  by  Mr.  Hale's  career  : 
That  there  can  be  no  higher  aim  in  life  than  to 
espouse  a  humane  and  holy  cause  in  the  hour  of  its 
gloom  and  despondency,  and  to  devote  one's  self 
constantly  and  fearlessly  to  its  service. 

Gifted  with  pleasing  form,  feature,  and  voice, 
receiving  an  excellent  collegiate  and  professional 
education,  and  achieving  success  as  a  lawyer,  at 
an  early  age  he  became  the  favorite  orator  of  his 
political  party,  an  associate  and  friend  of  Franklin 
Pierce,  its  greatest  leader  in  the  state,  and  was 
elected  a  representative  in  congress.  But  when  he 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  15 

was  called  upon  to  support  the  forcible  annexation 
of  Texas  and  an  unjust  war  with  Mexico,  in  order 
to  extend  the  domain  of  human  chattel  slavery,  and 
to  bring  more  slave  states  into  the  Union,  he  re 
belled  and  wrote  his  famous  Texas  letter,  for  which 
he  was  expelled  from  his  party  and  debarred  from 
congress  ;  and  his  now  historic  proclamation  of 
resistance  was  the  beginning  of  the  political  anti- 
slavery  movement  in  ^ew  Hampshire. 

The  conflict  upon  which  he  then  entered  aroused 
the  best  elements  of  his  noble  nature,  and  enlisted 
every  energy  of  his  soul  from  1845,  when  the 
struggle  began,  down  to  1865,  when  every  slave 
was  free  and  liberty  was  universal  in  America. 

The  idolized  poet  of  our  Merrimack  valley  (who, 
in  thought  and  word  and  sympathy,  is  with  us 
here  to-day)  greeted  the  beginning  with  his  earn 
est  benediction  and  thrilling  exhortation  : 

God  bless  New  Hampshire;  from  her  Granite  peaks 
Once  more  the  voice  of  Stark  and  Langdon  speaks. 


Courage,  then,  Northern  hearts.     Be  firm  ;  be  true. 
What  one  brave  state  hath  done,  can  ye  not  also  do  ? 

And,  when  the  full  fruition  came,  how  gratefully 
he  praised  God  in  a  joyous  song  of  freedom  : 

It  is  done. 

Clang  of  bell  and  roar  of  gun 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 

****** 
Fling  the  joy  from  town  to' town. 


****** 


16  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

On  morning's  wing 
Send  the  song  of  praise  abroad. 
With  a  sound  of  broken  chains, 
Tell  the  nations  that  He  reigns, 
Who  alone  is  Lord  and  God. 

Once  engaged  in  Freedom's  battle,  Mr.  Hale's 
hostility  to  every  form  of  human  debasement  be 
came  intense,  and  his  reverence  for  humanity,  his 
respect  for  man  made  in  the  image  of  his  Creator, 
became  the  absorbing  and  controlling  principle  of 
his  existence. 

It  was  alike  abhorrent  to  him  that  black  men, 
women,  and  children  should  be  sold  as  chattels 
upon  the  auction-block,  under  national  laws,  and 
that  the  sailors  of  the  republic  should,  by  national 
direction,  become  besotted  by  alcoholic  drams,  and 
be  flogged  with  brutal  whips.  To  contend  against 
the  enslavement  or  degradation  of  either  the  bodies 
or  the  souls  of  human  beings  of  any  race,  color,  or 
condition,  was  the  deliberate  mission  of  his  life. 

When  he  began  he  laid  down  office,  place,  and 
power  to  fight  in  a  doubtful  and  almost  hopeless 
struggle.  Before  he  finished  he  saw  his  great 
works  brought  to  complete  success,  the  paramount 
desires  of  his  heart  fully  gratified,  and  himself 
crowned  as  well  with  honors  as  with  length  of 
days. 

No  more  inspiriting  example  can  be  studied  by 
the  ingenuous  youth  of  New  Hampshire  than  the 
life  of  him  whose  statue  rises  before  us. 

Indeed,  the  spot  whereon  we  stand  abounds  in 
inspiring  suggestions. 

John    Stark   was    New   Hampshire's    most   re- 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  17 

nowned  soldier  in  the  Revolution.  Most  fortunate 
as  well  as  most  valiant  of  warriors,  he  saved  the 
rear  at  Bunker  Hill,  routed  the  British  army  at 
Bennington,  and  led  the  van  in  Washington's  criti 
cal  movement  upon  Trenton. 

Daniel  Webster,  with  his  massive  intellect,  his 
profound  comprehension  of  the  principles  of  the 
constitution  and  the  Union,  and  his  intense  patriot 
ism,  !N~ew  Hampshire  gave  to  the  nation  as  her 
greatest  statesman  and  orator. 

The  New  Hampshire  soldiers  in  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  to  whom  yonder  beautiful  arch  is  dedi 
cated,  gave  their  best  service  and,  many  of  them, 
their  lives  in  battle,  to  preserve  the  union  of  these 
states. 

The  memory  of  these  heroes  and  patriots  is 
gratefully  perpetuated  by  all  these  permanent  mon 
uments. 

To  these  tributes  to  the  distinguished  dead  to 
day  is  added  the  statue  of  another  son  of  ISTew 
Hampshire — 

A  citizen  of  public  spirit  and  high  character  ;  an 
orator  of  surpassing  pathos  and  power ;  a  fervid 
champion  of  the  oppressed  and  the  enslaved ;  an 
inspired  apostle  of  human  liberty  ;  and  a  conscien 
tious  statesman  of  purity  and  patriotism. 

He  was  well  worthy  of  commemoration  in  this 
enduring  form ;  and  his  character  and  life  should 
be  comprehended  and  imitated  by  the  present  and 
every  future  generation  in  the  state  he  loved  and 
served. 

2 


18  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ADDRESS    OF   ACCEPTANCE    BY   HIS    EXCELLENCY 
GOVERNOR   HIRAM   A.   TUTTLE. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — In  the 
mighty  struggle  that  preceded  the  destruction  of 
the  accursed  system  of  American  slavery,  New 
Hampshire  played  an  important  and  influential 
part.  When  the  able  Southern  leader  attacked 
the  federal  constitution,  it  was  New  Hampshire's 
greatest  son  who  made  answer,  declaring  doctrines 
and  principles  that  have  never  since  been  success 
fully  assailed.  In  that  great  contest  other  sons  of 
New  Hampshire  occupied  an  honorable  and  con- 
spiciious  position.  Chase,  Greeley,  Fessenden, 
Pillsbury,  and  others  that  might  be  named,  man 
fully  contended  for  the  principles  of  liberty  and 
equality,  and  dealt  mighty  blows  against  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery ;  but,  among  them  all,  one  man 
stood  out  preeminent  as  the  leader  of  the  anti-slav 
ery  host.  That  man  was  John  Parker  Hale  ;  a 
statue  to  whose  memory,  through  the  liberality  of 
one  of  New  Hampshire's  leading  citizens  and  pub 
lic  men, — Senator  William  E.  Chandler, — is  this 
day  unveiled  and  dedicated. 

In  behalf  of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire,  I 
accept  this  statue,  which  will  stand  here  to  remind 
the  people  of  our  state  of  the  great  and  good,  man 
whose  fame  and  achievements  it  is  designed  to 
commemorate.  Beautiful  and  enduring,  it  may 
•inspire  to  more  vigorous  and  virtuous  actions,  in 
his  mature  time,  the  graceful  child,  in  whom  are 
united  the  names,  Hale  and  Chandler,  and  in 
whose  veins  courses  the  blood  of  both. 


UNVEELING  CEREMONIES.  19 

It  is  well  thus  to  signalize  our  appreciation  of 
the  virtues  and  accomplishments  of  men  who,  like 
John  P.  Hale,  have  brought  credit  and  renown 
to  the  state  of  their  birth ;  and,  as  the  immortal 
Webster  and  the  heroic  Stark  are  already  here  in 
bronze,  it  is  fitting  that  the  eloquent  and  fearless 
Hale  should  also  be  thus  immortalized. 

New  Hampshire  has  produced  many  great  men, 
— a  galaxy  of  brilliant  jurists,  able  soldiers,  and 
consummate  statesmen, — but  among  them  all  John 
P.  Hale  stands  out  a  conspicuous  and  grand  figure. 
Born  in  the  early  days  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Mr.  Hale  reached  the  maturity  of  his  powers  at  the 
time  when  the  great  question  of  anti-slavery  was 
agitating  the  people  of  the  North,  and  into  that 
contest  he  threw  the  mighty  force  of  his  intellect 
and  the  magnificent  powers  of  his  convictions  and 
his  purpose.  Loving  freedom,  hating  oppression, 
a  true  patriot,  he  entered  into  the  thick  of  the 
fight,  and  never  flinched,  however  hot  the  battle 
became.  ]STo  matter  what  the  odds  were  against 
him,  he  fought  as  man  can  only  fight  when  ani 
mated  by  moral  convictions  and  strengthened  and 
upheld  by  moral  forces. 

At  every  step  in  his  career  he  opposed  slavery 
and  the  extension  of  slave  territory,  including  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  He  made  no  compromises 
with  wrong, — no  pledges  nor  promises  that  he 
could  not  honorably  keep.  The  associate  and 
friend  of  Franklin  Pierce  in  early  life,  he  broke 
away  from  the  great  Democratic  leader  when  Free 
dom  called  him  to  do  battle  against  oppression. 
The  associate  of  Chase  and  Sumner  in  the  senate 


20  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

of  the  United  States,  he  was  the  peer  of  these  great 
men,  and  together  they  held  aloft,  in  the  days  that 
tried  men's  souls,  the  flag  of  equality  and  human 
rights. 

He  lived  to  see  the  triumph  of  the  cause  for 
which  he  battled  so  long;  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
the  very  name  of  which  he  hated;  the  defeat  of  the 
slaveholders'  rebellion,  and  the  reconstruction  of 
the  Union  upon  the  firm  and  abiding  foundations 
of  liberty  and  justice.  His  career  was  one  of 
unflinching  integrity,  of  honorable  ambitions,  and 
magnificent  achievements. 

It  is  fitting  that  such  a  man  should  be  commem 
orated  in  granite  and  bronze.  It  is  fitting  that 
such  a  man,  whose  life-work  shed  so  much  lustre 
upon  New  Hampshire,  should  be  thus  honored. 
His  virtues  and  deeds  are  already  enshrined  in  the 
hearts  and  affections  of  the  people  of  the  state,  but 
it  is  well  that  this  beautiful  statue  should  be  erected 
here  as  an  object  lesson  to  the  youth  of  ]^ew  Hamp 
shire,  pointing  them,  not  only  to  the  grandeur  of 
this  man's  life,  but  also  reminding  them  of  the  pos 
sibilities  that  lie  in  the  path  of  those  who  value 
integrity;  who  love  the  truth,  and  whose  steps  are 
guided  by  the  unfailing  light  of  a  mighty  principle 
and  an  indomitable  purpose. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  :  In  the  name  of,  and  as  the 
servant  of,  the  great  state  of  New  Hampshire,  I 
accept  this  statue;  and,  as  the  chief  executive,  I 
fervently  invoke  the  renewed  devotion  of  our  peo 
ple  to  the  great  doctrines  and  principles  that  John 
P.  Hale  advocated  and  defended  with  such  marvel 
ous  ability  and  matchless  eloquence. 


UNVEILING  CEREMONIES.  21 

His  tongue  has  long  been  mute,  but  the  words 
he  spoke  in  life  and  the  heroic  grandeur  of  his 
character  should  ever  be  an  incentive  and  inspira 
tion  to  noble  aims  and  lofty  deeds  on  the  part  of 
all  who  appreciate  and  honor  the  highest  type  of 
American  manhood. 

THE  CHAIRMAN  :  —  We  are  fortunate  in  having, 
as  the  principal  speaker  of  the  occasion,  one  who, 
from  his  own  boyhood  to  the  day  of  the  decease  of 
Mr.  Hale,  knew  him,  admired  him,  and  loved  him  ; 
one  who  can  speak  out  of  a  full  heart.  I  present 
our  fellow-citizen,  Hon.  Daniel  Hall,  of  Dover,  as 
the  orator  of  the  day. 

COL.  HALL'S  ORATION. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS  :  "When 
the  illusions  of  military  glory,  and  the  delirious 
dream  of  a  universal  supremacy,  had  given  way  to 
the  sober  reflections  of  the  philosopher  and  states 
man,  the  august  exile  of  St.  Helena  said :  "  I 
wanted  no  statues,  for  I  knew  that  there  was  no 
safety  in  receiving  them  at  any  other  hands  than 
those  of  posterity."  In  a  like  spirit.  Burke  also 
deprecated  a  statue  in  his  life-time,  saying  that 
such  honors  belong  exclusively  to  the  tomb,  and 
that,  frequently,  such  is  human  inconstancy,  the 
same  hands  which  erect  pull  them  down.  Thus 
these  great  men,  both  with  characteristic  penetra 
tion  and  discernment,  touched  upon  the  profound 
truth  that  every  man's  work  is  to  be  tested  by 
time.  That  is  the  crucible  through  which  all  ser- 


22  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

vice  is  to  be  passed  before  it  receives  its  final  stamp 
and  authentication.  But  time  is  a  factor  whose 
relations  to  history  are  readjusted.  What  required 
an  age  in  an  earlier  day  is  now  accomplished  in  a 
generation,  by  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the 
rapid  circulation  of  intelligence,  the  electric  rapid 
ity  of  all  the  interchanges  of  thought  and  sentiment. 
Men  do  not  wait  for  ages  to  be  appreciated.  By 
these  modern  instruments  of  precision,  in  the  quick 
ening  of  human  sympathies,  and  the  broadening  of 
intellectual  horizons,  we  measure  the  mental  and 
moral  altitude  of  our  great  actors,  and  determine 
their  places  in  the  firmament  with  unerring  accu 
racy,  after  only  that  brief  lapse  of  time  which  suf 
fices  for  the  subsidence  of  the  passions  and  pertur 
bations  of  contemporary  judgment.  And  so,  before 
a  generation  has  passed  since  a  great  man  was 
gathered  to  his  rest,  the  people  of  his  state  meet, 
in  unbroken  accord,  to  do  him  honor  by  raising 
here  a  statue  to  his  memory  in  the  public  grounds 
of  the  commonwealth,  under  the  shadow  of  its  capi- 
tol,  whose  arches  have  so  often  resounded  with  the 
echoes  of  his  eloquence. 

On  the  31st  day  of  March,  1806,  New  Hamp 
shire  was  enriched  with  one  of  those  rare  gifts, 
which,  bestowed  upon  her  in  unusual  plenitude, 
have  given  her  a  distinction  beyond  most  other 
states,  as  the  mother  of  great  men.  On  that  day 
JOECST  PARKER  HALE  was  born  in  Rochester,  of  a 
father  bearing  the  same  name,  a  lawyer  of  brilliant 
promise,  and  a  mother  who  was  the  daughter  of 
William  O'Brien,  an  Irish  exile,  who  distinguished 
himself  by  the  daring  feat  of  capturing  the  first 


UNVEILING    CEEEMONIES.  23 

armed  British  vessel  in  the  War  of  the  Revolu 
tion  and  died  a  prisoner  of  war  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-three.  He  was  of  the  heroic  stock  which 
gave  birth  to  William  Smith  O'Brien.  It  is  hardly 
more  than  idle  speculation  to  fancy  that  we  always 
find  in  race  or  pedigree  the  source  of  special  traits 
in  a  great  character ;  but  those  who  are  curious  to 
trace  the  characteristics  of  genius  back  to  ances 
tral  blood,  have  readily  found  Mr.  Hale's  practical 
turn  of  mind,  sound  sense,  coolness  and  phlegm  in 
his  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon  father,  and  •  the  wit  and 
humor,  warmth  and  rhetorical  fervor  which  marked 
his  speech  and  temperament,  in  his  mother's  Celtic 
ancestors.  Mr.  Hale's  father  died  in  1819  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-four,  leaving  an  honorable  name, 
but  to  his  mother  little  of  this  world's  goods  where 
with  to  care  for  a  numerous  family  of  children,  of 
whom  Mr.  Hale  was  the  second,  and  but  thirteen 
years  of  age.  But  she  was  equal  to  the  duty 
imposed  upon  her.  She  nurtured  her  brood  with 
singular  care  and  industry,  and  had  the  satisfaction 
of  living  to  see  her  son  enter  upon  a  career  of 
assured  professional  success,  and  also  into  the 
political  life  which  was  afterwards  so  distinguished. 
She  died  in  1832  at  the  age  of  fifty-two  years. 
Through  all  his  life  Mr  Hale  loved  and  honored 
this  noble  mother  with  a  rare  devotion,  serving  her 
with  a  knightly  loyalty  in  his  youth,  and  in  his  days 
of  renown,  when  he  was  an  illustrious  United  States 
senator  and  the  peer  of  any  living  American,  he 
made  a  most  touching  allusion  to  her  in  the  debate 
upon  Gen.  Cass's  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the 
exiled  Irish  patriots.  Said  he,  "Sir,  my  mother, 


24  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

many  years  dead,  was  the  only  child  of  an  Irish 
exile.  His  name  was  O'Brien,  and  I  should  feel, 
if  in  this  place,  or  in  any  place,  whenever  or  wher 
ever  a  word  of  sympathy  is  to  be  expressed  for  an 
Irish  exile  and  an  O'Brien,  that  I  should  be  false 
to  every  pulsation  of  my  heart,  to  every  drop  of 
blood  that  flows  in  these  veins,  and  to  that  which 
no  man  can  be  false  to,  a  deceased  mother,  if  I  did 
not  express  it.  lN"o,  sir,  let  whatever  consequences, 
personal  or  political,  stand  in  the  way,  so  long  as 
the  blood  of  my  mother  flows  in  my  veins,  and  so 
long  as  I  remember  who  I  am,  and  what  I  am, 
whatever  words  of  sympathy,  of  counsel,  or  of 
encouragement  an  Irish  exile  can  have,  that  he  shall 
have  from  me." 

But  few  of  the  contemporaries  of  Mr.  Hale's 
youth  survive,  and  it  is  difficult  to  present  any 
but  an  imperfect  record  of  the  circumstances  amid 
which  he  reached  maturity,  the  processes  by  which 
he  was  prepared  for  his  destined  work,  and  the 
forces  which  determined  the  course  and  complex 
ion  of  his  career.  But  it  is  certain  that  he  was  a 
bright,  active,  quick,  witty,  kind,  generous,  cour 
ageous,  and  helpful  boy.  His  mother's  exertions 
kept  him  at  school,  and  he  was  enabled  at  an  early 
age  to  get  a  term  or  two  of  preparatory  study  at 
Exeter  under  Principal  Abbot,  who  boasted  some 
years  after  that  he  had  five  of  his  boys  in  the 
United  States  senate,  "  and  pretty  good  boys, 
too," — Webster,  Cass,  Hale,  Dix,  and  Felch.  He 
entered  Bowdoin  college  in  1823,  and  was  there  a 
contemporary  and  friend  of  Franklin  Pierce, 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  and  other  distinguished 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  25 

men.  He  was  graduated  there  in  1827,  with  a 
high  reputation  for  general  ability  and  off-hand 
oratorical  power.  He  read  law  at  Rochester  and 
at  Dover,  where  he  finished  his  legal  studies  under 
the  tuition  of  the  late  Daniel  M.  Christie,  for  many 
years  the  honored  head  of  the  New  Hampshire 
bar.  As  a  law  student  he  displayed  all  his  char 
acteristic  traits  of  quickness,  aptitude,  ease  of 
acquisition,  and  tenacity  of  memory ;  so  that  both 
his  instructors,  Mr.  Woodman  and  Mr.  Christie, 
formed  the  highest  hopes  of  him,  and  confidently 
predicted  his  future  eminence.  To  all  who  knew 
him  it  was  evident  that  he  was  fitted  to  play  a 
great  part  in  the  world,  and  was  the  possessor  of 
powers  of  which  his  country  had  a  right  to  demand 
an  account.  From  his  earliest  youth  he  manifested 
the  activity  of  his  intellect,  and  read  with  interest 
the  classics  of  our  literature,  and  especially  the 
great  orators  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  Admit 
ted  to  the  bar  and  opening  an  office  at  Dover  in 
1830,  he  at  once  took  high  rank  in  the  profession. 
His  entrance  into  practice  realized  the  highest 
hopes  of  his  friends  ;  he  soon  gained  a  large  client 
age,  and  within  a  few  years  became  known  as  one 
of  the  most  astute  lawyers  and  eloquent  advocates 
at  the  New  Hampshire  bar.  He  had  consummate 
skill  and  tact  in  handling  witnesses,  rare  keenness  in 
discerning  the  points  at  issue  and  adroitness  in 
meeting  them,  and  extraordinary  power  before 
juries  in  both  criminal  and  civil  cases.  In  the  ear 
lier  years  of  his  practice  he  was  often  the  leading 
counsel  against  Mr.  Christie  and  others  not  less 
distinguished,  and  his  appeals  to  the  jury  gave  full 


26  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

scope  to  his  unrivalled  wit  and  humor,  his  indigna 
tion  against  wrong,  and  pathos  in  defence  of  the 
rights  of  humanity. 

As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Hale  from  the  outset  mani 
fested  the  democratic  tendencies  of  his  mind  and 
character.  He  believed  in  the  people,  and  was 
jealous  of  every  encroachment  upon  popular  rights. 
Before  his  entrance  upon  the  national  arena  he 
made  a  stand  in  the  supreme  court  of  New  Hamp 
shire  for  the  right  of  the  jury  to  be  judges  of  the 
law  as  well  as  the  facts  in  criminal  cases,  and  had  a 
warm  controversy  on  the  subject  with  the  late 
Chief- Justice  Joel  Parker.  He  published  a  pam 
phlet  on  the  question  which  was  a  remarkable  pro 
duction,  showing  great  research  and  polemical 
skill,  and  it  is  scarcely  extravagant  to  style  it  a 
monument  to  his  acquirements  as  a  lawyer.  It 
contains  well-nigh  all  the  learning  on  a  question  of 
the  deepest  importance  in  its  day,  which  has  been 
substantially  settled  at  last  by  the  ameliorations  of 
the  criminal  law,  the  progress  of  society,  and  the 
growth  of  the  institutions  of  liberty.  Although 
Mr.  Hale  was  not  distinguished  for  recondite  learn 
ing,  this  publication  exhibited  too  complete  a 
mastery  of  authorities  to  be  dashed  off  at  a  sitting, 
too  profound  an  argument  to  have  been  prepared 
in  a  day.  This  debate  is  chiefly  interesting  today 
as  proof  that  Mr.  Hale  had  unquestionably  devoted 
time  in  his  early  years  to  the  study  of  the  great 
books  of  the  common  law,  to  the  history  and 
development  of  English  liberty,  and  was  deeply 
grounded  in  its  leading  principles.  Judge  Parker 
replied  through  the  New  Hampshire  Reports  in 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  27 

Peirce  et  al.  v.  State,  13  NT.  H.  536.  An  examina 
tion  of  these  reports  from  Vol.  6  to  17,  inclusive, 
will  show  the  extent  and  importance  of  Mr.  Hale's 
law  practice,  and  that  he  had  every  prospect  of  a 
great  legal  career. 

Mr.  Hale  exhibited  an  early  bias  towards  poli 
tics  and  the  consideration  of  public  aifairs.  With 
his  ardent  nature,  popular  sympathies,  and  devo 
tion  to  free  principles,  it  is  not  strange  that  he  had 
embraced  the  doctrines  of  that  democracy  which 
was  then  in  the  ascendant  in  the  young  republic. 
In  1832  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  011  a 
workingman's  ticket,  an  incident  thus  early  indica 
tive  of  his  sympathetic  relation  with  humanity,  and 
a  presage  of  his  future  career  as  a  champion  of 
popular  rights.  He  soon  after  became  fully  iden 
tified  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  in  1834, 
when  only  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  he  was  ap 
pointed  by  President  Jackson  United  States  dis 
trict  attorney,  which  position  he  held  with  distinc 
tion  till  he  was  removed  for  political  reasons  by 
the  Whig  administration  in  1841.  During  this 
time  Mr.  Hale  had  developed  very  rapidly  as  a 
lawyer  and  orator,  and  in  1843  he  was  nominated 
for  congress  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  elected 
on  a  general  ticket  with  Edmund  Burke,  John  R. 
Reding,  and  Moses  Morris. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Hale  to  come  upon  the 
stage  of  action  at  a  time  of  intellectual  and  moral 
ferment  in  New  England, — a  time  of  daring  spec 
ulations,  when  enthusiasms  were  aroused,  and  so 
ciety,  though  not  recreated  by  transcendentalism 
and  other  more  or  less  Utopian  schemes,  yet  re- 


28  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ceived  a  mighty  uplifting,  which  gave  free  scope 
to  the  most  adventurous  thought  and  philanthropy. 
His  youth  and  early  manhood  were  coincident  with 
this  period  of  moral  and  intellectual  upheaval  and 
awakening  on  all  subjects  ;  and  if  such  a  man,  by 
virtue  of  his  environment  and  the  indifference  of 
the  public  sentiment  in  which  he  was  reared,  was 
as  yet  callous  to  the  wrong  and  the  danger  of 
American  slavery,  it  was  clear  he  could  not  so 
remain.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  that  a  mind 
so  comprehensive,  a  nature  so  fine  and  humane,  a 
temper  so  bold,  a  courage  so  superb  and  complete, 
should  not  be  arrested  by  a  portent  so  terrible  then 
rising  into  domination  of  the  republic,  and  against 
which  every  generous  aspiration  of  New  England 
was  rising  in  insurrection.  Since,  by  his  own  con 
fession,  he  had  encouraged  a  rude  interruption  of 
an  anti-slavery  meeting  in  Dover  in  1835,  a  perse 
cution  of  abolitionists  in  which  he  said  he  thought 
he  was  doing  God  service,  as  Paul  did  before  his 
conversion  in  persecuting  the  Christians,  Mr.  Hale 
had  been  a  watchful  observer  of  the  course  of 
events  and  ideas,  and  when  he  was  elected  to  con 
gress  in  1843,  it  was  known  that  he  would  vote  for 
the  abrogation  of  the  twenty-first  rule,  whereby 
congress,  at  the  dictation  of  the  slave  power,  con 
temptuously  refused  to  receive  anti-slavery  peti 
tions.  He  had  avowed  this  purpose,  and  was 
elected  with  that  understanding ;  and  when  the 
question  came  forward  in  that  congress,  he,  with 
Hannibal  Hamlin  of  Maine,  came  to  the  support  of 
Mr.  Adams,  and  valiantly  fought  to  abrogate  the 
rule.  The  attempt  was  not  then  successful,  but  at 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  29 

the  next  session  the  "  old  man  eloquent "  burst 
through  the  gag  rule  in  triumph. 

The  slavery  of  the  negro  race  in  the  United 
States  is  one  of  the  cruelest  and  bloodiest  passages 
in  human  history.  In  the  same  year  that  the  May 
flower  crossed  the  ocean,  bearing  to  the  western 
continent  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  another  ship  buffeted 
the  same  sea,  brought  with  her  a  cargo  of  nineteen 
slaves,  and  landed  them  at  Jamestown  in  Virginia. 
That  was  the  fatal  seed  of  American  slavery,  the 
upas  tree  which  struck  deep  its  poisonous  root,  and 
threatened  so  long  to  overshadow  the  whole  land. 
Mr.  Sumner  well  said  that  in  the  hold  of  these  two 
ships  were  concealed  the  germs  of  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion.  As  time  passed  on,  negroes  were  forced 
into  the  country  by  British  greed,  and  the  system 
made  its  way  into  all  the  colonies.  But  the  con 
science  of  Puritanism  never  gave  up  its  antagonism 
to  the  idea  that  "  man  could  hold  property  in  man," 
and  in  time  the  New  England  colonies  one  by  one 
sloughed  it  off. 

During  the  War  of  Independence,  however, 
nearly  all  the  colonies  held  slaves,  though  the  sys 
tem  was  far  stronger  in  the  South  than  in  the 
North.  But  the  Revolutionary  struggle  itself 
gave  rise  to  certain  phrases  since  called  "  glittering 
generalities  of  natural  right,"  which  in  themselves 
were  held  to  bar  a  continuance  of  the  institution. 
Before  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  a  majority 
of  the  states  had  inhibited  the  further  introduction 
of  slaves,  and  almost  everywhere,  notably  in  Vir 
ginia  under  the  influence  of  Jefferson  and  Madison, 
the  current  of  opinion  and  of  political  action  was 


30  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

against  slavery.  That  it  was  considered  a  mere 
temporary  condition  by  our  fathers,  to  be  very 
soon  eliminated  and  cast  off,  is  beyond  question. 
It  was  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Hale  to  demonstrate  that 
on  repeated  occasions  in  his  political  life.  The 
views  of  the  makers  of  the  constitution  are  clearly 
shown  by  the  great  ordinance  of  1787,  passed  by 
the  congress  of  the  confederation,  which  dedicated 
the  Northwest  to  freedom  forever  by  these  immor 
tal  words :  "  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor 
involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  territory,  other 
wise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted." 

Then  came  the  constitution  itself,  in  which  the 
founders  would  acknowledge  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  the  Union  by  an  euphemism  only,  by 
the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  after  1808,  and 
by  guaranties  looking  to  the  ultimate  extinction  of 
the  system  itself.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  congress 
under  the  constitution  was  to  reenact  the  ordinance 
of  Jefferson  and  Dane  by  extending  its  provisions 
to  new  territory  ceded  to  the  Union.  But  now, 
soon  after  the  constitution  was  formed,  these  strong 
tendencies  towards  emancipation  and  the  restriction 
of  slavery  began  to  be  reversed.  In  the  Union  as 
first  formed,  only  a  small  portion,  a  little  strip  on 
the  southern  Atlantic  slope,  was  adapted  to  the 
tropical  productions  of  rice  and  cotton.  But  now 
the  Anglo-Saxon  "  hunger  for  the  horizon  "  began 
to  operate.  The  retrocession  of  Louisiana  to  France 
in  1800,  and  its  purchase  by  the  United  States  from 
Napoleon  in  1803,  and  the  purchase  of  Florida  from 
Spain  in  1819,  threw  open  a  vast  acreage  of  new 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  31 

lands,  with  a  deep  and  fertile  soil,  under  a  burning 
sun,  fitted  superbly  for  the  growth  of  cotton  and 
the  sugar  cane  under  conditions  to  which  the  Cau 
casian  constitution  was  not  adapted.  But  the  most 
potent  factor  was  the  simple  invention  of  the  cot 
ton  gin  by  Eli  Whitney  in  1793,  which,  concur 
ring  with  other  mechanical  inventions  of  this  time, 
changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  slavery  question 
in  the  cotton  growing  states. 

Previous  to  1790  no  cotton  had  been  exported 
from  America.  These  events  stimulated  the  culti 
vation  of  cotton,  opened  for  it  a  foreign  market, 
enhanced  the  commercial  value  of  the  slave,  and 
tightened  his  chains.  It  is  noteworthy  how  the 
excess  of  land  in  the  extreme  South  fitted  into  the 
excess  of  labor  in  the  border  states,  and  gave  to 
both  a  common  and  reciprocal  interest  in  "  the  pe 
culiar  institution."  The  Louisiana  purchase  added 
more  land  to  the  Union  than  we  already  had.  This 
acquisition  of  territory  thus  developed  the  inter 
state  slave  trade,  and  Virginia  became  the  breed 
ing  ground  of  a  race  of  chattel  laborers,  whose 
wrongs  were  depicted  in  such  lurid  colors  and  with 
such  lightning  strokes  of  genius  in  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.  Thus  the  institution  became  an  iniquitous 
and  guilty  traffic,  so  far  out-heroding  any  former 
system  of  helotism  in  human  history  as  to  call  down 
upon  itself  the  execration  of  man  and  the  vengeance 
of  heaven.  The  South  became  more  and  more 
enamored  of  a  system  so  diabolically  profitable, 
and,  elated  by  holding  the  fancied  monopoly  of  the 
world's  greatest  staple,  boldly  proclaimed  that  cot 
ton  was  king, — that  cotton  could  only  be  produced 


32  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

by  slave  labor,  and  that  therefore  slavery  should  be 
a  permanent  institution,  to  be  nursed,  protected, 
preserved,  extended,  and  made  the  corner  stone 
and  vital  principle  of  their  civilization.  From  that 
time  the  North  and  South  grew  wider  and  wider 
apart,  and  the  rival  systems  of  freedom  and  slavery 
contended  fiercely  for  the  mastery  in  the  great 
masses  of  territory  that  had  been  successively 
added  to  the  Union.  Happily,  the  great  ordinance 
of  1787,  a  state  paper  deserving  to  take  rank  with 
the  declaration  of  independence,  which  Lord 
Brougham  said  should  always  hang  in  the  cab 
inet  of  kings,  had  predestined  to  freedom  a  vast 
region,  a  virgin  soil  where  no  prior  rights  had 
taken  root  and  no  tares  been  sown,  and  to  its  effi 
cacy  we  are  indebted  for  the  great  free  common 
wealths  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wis 
consin,  and  Minnesota,  stretching  from  the  Ohio  to 
the  sources  of  the  Mississippi, — though  slavery  did 
not  give  them  up  even  without  a  further  struggle. 
The  South,  with  a  bad  faith  which  became  charac 
teristic,  demanded  the  abrogation  of  the  ordinance, 
and  an  agitation  began  to  be  manifested  whose 
dull  and  distant  rumblings,  forerunners  of  volcanic 
outbreaks,  could  be  heard  ever  and  anon  during 
the  next  thirty  years.  But,  over  the  Louisiana 
purchase  of  1803,  that  vast  region  extending  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Miss 
ouri,  the  old  empires  of  Spain  and  France  had 
legalized  slavery,  and  consequently  the  institution 
was  already  planted  there  beyond  dispute.  Louisi 
ana  and  Arkansas  were  taken  into  the  Union  as 
slave  states,  but  at  a  little  later  day,  when  Missouri 


UNVEILING   CEEEMONIES.  33 

applied  for  admission  in  1818,  the  friends  of  free 
dom,  then  in  control  of  the  house  of  representa 
tives,  demanded  the  exclusion  of  slavery.  There 
upon  ensued  a  memorable  struggle  lasting  two 
years,  but  finally  settled  by  the  Missouri  compro 
mise  passed  in  1820,  whereby  Missouri  was  admit 
ted  with  the  slavery  that  has  cursed  and  hampered 
her  ever  since,  and  the  JS^orth  in  lieu  of  it  got  the 
solemn  agreement  of  the  South  for  the  reversion  of 
freedom  in  the  part  of  the  territory  not  yet  organ 
ized,  in  the  following  words  :  "And  be  it  further 
enacted,  that  in  all  that  territory  ceded  by  France 
to  the  United  States  under  the  name  of  Louisiana, 
which  lies  north  of  36°  30'  north  latitude,  excepting 
only  such  part  thereof  as  is  included  within  the 
limits  of  the  state  contemplated  by  this  act,  slavery 
and  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  pun 
ishment  of  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted,  shall  be  and  is  forever  prohibited." 
Florida  was  then  admitted  in  1821,  and  once  more 
the  country  breathed  freely,  and  peace  for  the 
future  was  supposed  to  be  secure.  But  the  tiger 
craving  of  the  South  for  conquest  and  power  had 
been  whetted,  and  its  aggressive  and  Philistine 
character  appeared  ever  and  anon,  in  the  discus 
sions  upon  the  tariff,  the  public  lands,  the  right  of 
petition,  the  right  of  interference  with  the  mails  in 
search  of  "  incendiary  publications,"  the  Creek  and 
Seminole  War,  and  otherwise,  that  came  up  in  the 
following  twenty  years.  That  at  the  end  slavery 
had  made  a  distinct  advance  upon  freedom,  enlarg 
ing  its  pretensions,  aggrandizing  itself  anew  at 
every  step,  and  more  and  more  completely  subju- 


34  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

gating  the  public  opinion  of  the  North  to  its  uses, 
is  a  truth  abundantly  evidenced  by  the  history  of 
the  time.  In  1832  Mr.  Calhoun  had  organized  the 
slave  power,  and  brought  it  forward  upon  the  scene 
with  a  distinct  purpose  and  programme  of  its  own; 
and,  less  than  twenty-five  years  after  the  Missouri 
compromise,  that  power,  now  become  a  propaganda 
of  the  most  ruthless  character,  and,  holding  entire 
control  of  the  federal  government,  had  adroitly  and 
criminally  plotted  and  brought  about  the  severance 
of  Texas  from  Mexico,  overrun  and  revolutionized 
it,  and  now  proposed  to  annex  it  to  the  slave  inter 
est  in  the  Union,  and  make  its  preponderance  final 
and  decisive.  This  had  been  notoriously  done  in 
the  interest  of  slave  extension.  These  encroach 
ments  of  the  South  upon  freedom  were  well  calcu 
lated  to  arouse  the  latent  and  slowly-growing  anti- 
slavery  sentiments  of  the  North,  and,  in  fact, 
brought  a  crisis  which  enlisted  the  energies  of 
many  noble  souls. 

At  this  juncture  John  P.  Hale  took  his  seat  in 
the  national  house  of  representatives — into  this 
seething  caldron  of  slavery  agitation  his  political 
life  was  cast.  He  had  inherited  no  anti-slavery 
principles — such  as  he  had  were  the  fruit  of  a 
steady  growth  of  heart  and  brain.  He  had  been 
awakened  by  the  trend  of  events  and  ideas  between 
the  Storrs  meeting  in  the  Dover  church  and  1843, 
and  he  found  his  conscience  and  his  whole  better 
nature  insurgent  against  the  slave  system.  Per 
haps  no  man  ever  entered  congress  with  more 
nattering  prospects.  His  reputation  had  preceded 
him,  and  his  gifts  as  an  orator  gave  him  an  imme- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  35 

diate  hearing  in  the  house.  In  the  opening  days 
of  the  session  he  entered  freely  into  the  debates, 
taking  a  very  prominent  stand  as  an  advocate  of 
Democratic  principles,  and  attracting  wide  and 
admiring  attention  by  his  oratorical  power.  There 
was  the  fire  of  a  passionate  sincerity  in  his  eloquent 
improvisations ;  and  I  well  remember  the  contem 
porary  characterizations  of  him  as  the  "  Democratic 
Boanerges,"  the  "  Granite  State  cataract,"  and 
other  like  expressions.  He  proposed  measures  of 
retrenchment  in  regard  to  West  Point,  the  army, 
and  the  navy,  and  advocated  a  reduction  in  postage 
rates,  and  the  abolition  of  corporal  punishment  in 
the  army.  On  the  3d  of  June,  1844,  he  set  in 
motion  a  great  movement  for  humanity  by  moving 
an  amendment  to  the  naval  appropriation  bill,  abol 
ishing  flogging  in  the  navy,  and  his  eloquence 
carried  it  in  the  house,  but  it  was  lost  in  the  senate. 
Then  came  the  act  of  Mr.  Hale  which  may  fairly 
be  regarded  as  the  initial  point  of  his  great  career 
upon  those  lines  which  he  afterwards  followed  with 
such  devoted  singleness  of  heart  and  purpose.  The 
annexation  of  Texas  was  the  pet  scheme  of  Presi 
dent  Tyler,  but  was  supported  zealously  by  the 
extreme  pro-slavery  party  at  the  South  with  Mr. 
Calhoun  at  their  head.  He  was  their  leading  intel 
lect,  and  it  was  soon  seen  to  be  a  scheme  in  the 
direct  and  exclusive  interest  of  slavery  extension. 
Accordingly,  as  its  character  unfolded,  the  sponta 
neous  feeling  and  expression  of  the  JSTorth  were 
opposed  to  it.  The  project  of  slavery  extension 
was  opposed  by  all  the  accredited  organs  of  Demo 
cratic  party  opinion  in  ~New  Hampshire,  alike  by 


86  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

the  leaders,  the  press,  and  the  masses  of  the  party 
itself.     It  was  denounced  by  the  press  in  unmeas 
ured  terms  as  a  design  "  black  as  ink  and  bitter  as 
hell."     This   was   the   undoubted    attitude    of  the 
Democratic  party  of  New  Hampshire  in  1843  and 
1844.     But  the  South  had  obtained  complete  con 
trol  of  the  national  councils  and  patronage,  and  the 
word  had  gone  forth  that  Texas  was  to  be  annexed 
to  the  Union  for  the    aggrandizement  of  slavery, 
and   such   was  the  power    of  the  South    over  the 
national  convention  that  Mr.  Van  Buren,  for  whom 
the  Democracy  of  New  Hampshire  had  unanimously 
instructed  their  delegates,  was    defrauded  of  the 
presidential  nomination  on  account  of  his  opposi 
tion   to   the    annexation    of  Texas,  and    Mr.  Polk 
nominated  because  he  favored  the  scheme.     There 
fore,  to  keep  in  line  with,  or  rather  to  obey  the 
behests  of,  the  Southern  Democracy,  the  Democratic 
newspapers  and    public   men  of  New  Hampshire 
had  to  change  front,  and  to  eat  their  own  brave 
words    of  resistance  to  that  domination.     In  fact, 
the  annexation  of  Texas  had  been  first  hinted  at, 
then   timidly     suggested,    and    at    length    boldly 
avowed  as  the  Democratic  policy  in  the  teeth  of  all 
the  anti-slavery  feeling  of  the   Northern   states ; 
and  not  only  this,  but  as  a  treaty  of  annexation, 
which  the  whole  North  believed  to  be  the  only  con 
stitutional  way  of  acquiring  foreign  territory,  could 
not  be  carried  through  the  senate,  it  was  resolved 
by  an  unscrupulous  and  domineering  slave  party  to 
defy  all  constitutional  restraints,  and  annex  Texas 
by  joint  resolution.     So  complete  was  the  domina 
tion  of  Southern  men  and  interests  over  the  Demo- 


UNVEILING    CKREMONIES.  37 

cratic  party  of  the  North  that  at  their  dictation  the 
New  Hampshire  Democracy  reversed  its  course, 
and  the  legislature  in  December,  1844,  passed  reso 
lutions  instructing  the  senators  and  representatives 
in  congress  to  vote  for  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
It  was  true  that  Mr.  Hale  had  powerfully  and  effec 
tively  advocated  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk,  who  was 
known  to  be  in  favor  of  annexation,  but  he  had  done 
so,  undoubtedly,  with  the  understanding  that 
annexation  was  to  be  effected,  if  at  all,  by  constitu 
tional  methods,  by  the  treaty-making  power  which 
all  the  great  organs  of  constitutional  interpretation 
had  insisted  upon,  and  also  that  as  many  or  more 
free  than  slave  states  were  to  be  added  to  the 
Union,  and  thus  the  area  of  freedom  was  to  be 
extended  at  least  equally  with  that  of  slavery. 
This  was  the  language  of  Northern  speakers,  and 
the  Democratic  press,  headed  by  the  Democratic 
Review,  all  through  the  campaign.  This  was  Mr. 
Clay's  opinion,  and  some  Southern  men  opposed 
the  annexation  upon  the  very  ground  "  that  Texas 
as  an  undivided  slave  country,  though  a  foreign 
one,  was  preferable  to  Texas  carved  up  into  an 
equal  number  of  slaveholding  and  non-si  a  ve- 
holding  states."  The  New  Hampshire  legislature 
in  these  very  resolutions  of  instruction  expressed 
the  belief  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  would  add 
more  free  than  slave  states  to  the  Union.  But 
Mr.  Polk  had  been  elected,  and  the  South  pro 
ceeded  at  once  to  pluck  the  spoils  of  victory. 
Before  the  inauguration  so  eager  were  they  for  the 
consummation  of  the  scheme  that  at  the  session 
commencing  in  December,  1844,  the  Texas  project 


38  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

was  brought  forward.  All  the  pent-up  fires  of 
Northern  opposition  to  slavery  extension  and 
aggrandizement  were  fanned  into  a  flame,  and  a 
fierce  contention  arose.  Mr.  Hale,  evidently  with 
no  idea  of  breaking  with  his  party,  instead  of  bend 
ing  to  the  dictation  of  the  Southern  leaders,  pro 
ceeded  simply  to  carry  out  the  opinions  he  was 
known  to  entertain,  which  he  had  avowed  in  New 
Hampshire,  which  he  had  expressed  by  his  action 
in  vindication  of  the  right  of  petition,  and  in  which 
he  had  every  reason  to  suppose  he  would  be  sus 
tained  by  his  Democratic  constituents  at  home.  He 
accordingly  moved  a  suspension  of  the  rules  in 
order  to  move  to  divide  Texas  into  two  parts,  in 
one  of  which  slavery  should  be  forever  prohibited  ; 
but  though  his  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority, 
it  failed  for  want  of  a  two-thirds  vote.  This,  and 
the  scornful  defeat  of  every  movement  looking  to  a 
division  of  Texas  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
showed  only  too  clearly  the  animus  of  the  whole 
scheme.  In  fact,  if  Texas,  or  any  part  of  it,  had 
been  let  in  with  a  constitution  prohibiting  slavery, 
subsequent  proceedings  would  have  interested  its 
advocates  no  more. 

Mr.  Hale  then  addressed  to  his  constituents,  "  the 
Democratic  Republican  electors  of  New  Hamp 
shire,"  the  famous  letter  dated  July  7,  1845,  in 
which  he  took  ground  against  the  Texas  scheme, 
exposing  its  character  in  no  measured  terms,  as 
purely  in  the  interest  of  slave  extension.  He 
declared  his  unalterable  opposition  to  the  annexa 
tion  by  congress  of  a  foreign  nation  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  extending  and  perpetuating  slavery. 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  39 

He  stigmatized  the  reasons  given  by  its  advocates 
in  its  behalf  as  "  eminently  calculated  to  provoke 
the  scorn  of  earth  and  the  judgment  of  heaven," 
and  thus  appealed  to  the  patriotic  traditions  of  one 
of  the  most  patriotic  of  the  "  old  thirteen": — "When 
our  forefathers  bade  a  last  farewell  to  the  homes  of 
their  childhood,  the  graves  of  their  fathers,  and  the 
temples  of  their  God,  and  ventured  upon  all  the 
desperate  contingencies  of  wintry  seas  and  a  sav 
age  coast,  that  they  might  in  strong  faith  and 
ardent  hope  lay  deep  the  foundations  of  the  temple 
of  liberty,  their  faith  would  have  become  scepticism, 
and  their  hope  despair,  could  they  have  foreseen 
that  the  day  would  ever  arrive  when  their  degener 
ate  sons  should  be  found  seeking  to  extend  their 
boundaries  and  their  government,  not  for  the  pur 
pose  of  promoting  freedom,  but  sustaining  slavery." 
This  letter  for  a  moment  gave  pause  to  political 
movements  in  i^ew  Hampshire,  but  was  very  soon 
met  by  a  storm  of  denunciation  from  the  party 
leaders.  The  decree  went  forth  that  Mr.  Hale  was 
to  be  thrown  overboard  for  his  contumacy,  and  at 
a  convention  of  the  party  called  for  the  purpose 
February  12,  1845,  his  nomination  was  rescinded, 
his  name  struck  from  the  ticket,  and  another  sub 
stituted.  But  there  was  a  public  conscience  that 
only  needed  to  be  aroused,  and  the  letter  had  struck 
a  chord  that  was  only  waiting  to  be  touched  by  the 
hand  of  a  master.  Immediately  there  were  signs 
of  a  revolt  in  the  Democratic  party  against  this 
despotic  sway  at  the  dictation  of  the  slave  power, 
and  under  the  lead  of  Amos  Tuck  and  John  L. 
Hayes  a  small  party  styling  themselves  Tndepend- 


40  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

ent  Democrats  rallied  about  the  standard  of  Mr. 
Hale.  This  was  the  first  meeting  in  a  state  where 
the  party  rule  was  absolute — which  had  been  under 
Democratic  control  since  1829,  and  had  given  Mr. 
Polk  6,000  majority.  Meanwhile,  although  faithful 
sentinels  on  the  watch  towers  of  freedom  fore 
warned  the  North  of  the  direful  consequences  of 
annexation,  it  was  carried  in  the  house  by  134  to 
77,  showing  the  gains  slavery  had  made,  John  P. 
Hale  and  Hannibal  Hamlin  alone  among  the  North 
ern  Democracy  refusing  to  bow  the  knee  at  the 
party  behest.  Thus  the  administration  of  Mr. 
Tyler,  not  otherwise  illustrious,  was  distinguished 
at  last  by  the  admission  of  Texas.  The  election 
came  off  March  11,  1845.  Mr.  Hale  received  about 
8,000  votes,  and  the  regular  Democratic  candidate 
lacked  about  1,000  votes  of  an  election.  Mr.  Hale 
had  taken  no  very  active  part  in  it.  He  had  not 
been  hopeful  of  a  successful  resistance  to  the  party 
despotism,  and  had  made  arrangements  to  retire 
from  political  life,  and  take  up  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Many  years 
afterward  he  said  in  the  senate, — "  When  1  went 
home  from  Washington  at  the  close  of  the  session 
in  1845, 1  had  no  more  idea  of  being  returned  to 
congress  than  I  had  of  succeeding  to  the  vacant 
throne  of  China."  Moreover,  in  his  letter  to  his 
constituents,  he  had  rather  incautiously  said  :  "  If 
you  think  differently  from  me  on  this  subject,  and 
should  therefore  deem  it  expedient  to  select  another 
person  to  effectuate  your  purpose  in  congress,  no 
person  in  the  state  will  bow  more  submissively  to 
your  will  than  myself."  With  a  perhaps  over- 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  41 

scrupulous  sense  of  honor,  he  regarded  this  as  a 
sort  of  pledge  to  leave  the  result  with  them  with 
out  interference.  But  the  result  of  the  first  trial 
convinced  him  that  New  Hampshire  was  not  yet 
irrevocably  mortgaged  to  the  slave  propaganda, 
nor  wholly  prepared  to  execute  the  edicts  of  party 
tyranny.  His  friends  gathered  around  him,  and 
demanded  that  he  take  the  field  in  person.  Their 
summons  to  him  was  the  appeal  of  the  Andalusian 
king  to  the  ancient  Douglas  : 

"  Take  thou  the  leading  of  the  van, 
And  charge  the  Moors  amain ; 
There  is  not  such  a  lance  as  thine 
In  all  the  hosts  of  Spain." 

Mr.  Hale  yielded  to  these  importunities  rather 
than  to  any  ambitious  views  or  hopes  of  his  own. 
He  assumed  the  leadership  ;  he  canvassed  the  state  ; 
he  delivered  speeches  wherever  he  could  get  a 
hearing,  to  audiences  large  and  small,  in  halls,  in 
churches,  in  vestries,  in  school-rooms,  in  the  open 
air,  everywhere  stirring  and  thrilling  the  people 
with  his  warm  and  glowing  eloquence,  and  his 
impassioned  appeals  to  duty  and  manliness.  He 
was  then  in  his  full  prime.  His  figure  was  noble 
and  commanding — 

"A  combination  and  a  form  indeed, 
Where  every  god  did  seem  to  set  his  seal. 
To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man." 

His  voice  was  resonant  and  flexible  ;  his  counte 
nance  was  one  of  striking  manly  beauty ;  he  had 
perfect  command  of  words,  and  perfect  command 


42  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

of  his  temper;  his  self-control,  his  chivalrous  cour 
tesy,  were  superb  ;  his  sincerity  and  loyalty  to  his 
convictions  were  manifest,  and  it  required  a  crisis 
like  this,  the  liberties  of  man  hanging  in  the  bal 
ance,  to  give  full  sweep  to  his  unrivalled  powers, 
his  wit,  his  humor,  his  brilliant  repartee,  and  bring 
into  play  all  the  resources  of  his  large  mind,  his 
humane  spirit,  his  liberty-loving  heart.  The  cir 
cumstances  had  never  had  a  parallel.  Here  was  a 
man  who  was  voluntarily  putting  to  hazard  the 
highest  hopes  and  brightest  prospects — renouncing 
all  by  a  sublime  act  of  political  abnegation  and  self- 
effacement — making  way  for  liberty  like  Arnold 
Von  Winkelreid  charging  the  Austrian  army ; 
giving  up  a  party  whose  ascendency  in  his  own 
state  was  so  pronounced  as  to  be  beyond  question, 
whose  particular  pride  and  pet  he  was,  and  by 
whose  generous  suffrages  he  had  been  set  forward 
in  a  career  of  political  advancement  whose  goal  he 
might  without  unwarranted  pretension  easily  see  in 
the  highest  honor  of  the  world.  As  far  as  human 
forecast  could  reach,  this  course  opened  to  him  no 
road  to  favor  or  patronage.  As  no  man  could  be 
so  visionary  as  to  indulge  a  hope  of  breaking  the 
spell  of  Democratic  victory  in  ~New  Hampshire, 
adherence  to  his  party  connection  and  obedience 
to  party  direction  were  unquestionably  the  readiest 
and  only  path  to  influence  and  promotion.  Con 
curring  with  this  was  Mr.  Hale's  natural  fondness 
for  popular  applause  and  for  political  life,  his  al 
leged  ambition,  and  his  growing  popularity  as  an 
orator  and  statesman.  But  all  were  renounced. 
He  hazarded  wealth,  power,  political  preferment, 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  43 

and  held  out  no  lure  to  his  followers  but  the  cold 
and  hunger  which  Garibaldi  promised  to  those  who 
should  strike  with  him  for  the  deliverance  of  Italy. 
In  his  own  words,  he  sat  on  no  stool  of  repentance. 
He  maintained  the  defiant  attitude  he  had  taken 
up,  and  defended  his  position  before  the  people 
with  imperturbable  wit,  with  infinite  good  humor, 
and  incomparable  eloquence.  In  this  extraordinary 
crusade  of  Mr.  Hale  there  was  a  certain  romantic 
knight-errantry,  which,  with  the  charm  of  his  per 
sonality,  his  gallant  and  chivalrous  bearing,  his 
noble  heart,  his  freedom  from  all  vindictiveness  as 
from  every  selfish  ambition,  captivated  the  imagina 
tion  of  the  people,  and  made  him  an  ideal  popular 
hero.  Brave  men  flocked  to  his  standard,  and 
gladly  bared  their  own  bosoms  to  the  shafts  of  the 
pro-slavery  hatred  aimed  at  him.  He  was  a  popu 
lar  idol,  and  made  of  political  coadjutors  devoted 
personal  friends.  They  lived  in  his  "  mild  and 
magnificent  eye,"  and  loved  to  follow  wherever  his 
white  plume  danced  in  the  eddies  of  the  fight. 
They  were  his  disciples,  and  asked  nothing  better 
than  the  title  of  "  Hale  men,"  thus  identifying 
themselves  with  this  eloquent  champion  of  liberty 
sans  peur  et  sans  reproche.  I  shall  never  forget 
how  a  noble  old  man  once  told  me  that  in  those 
days  no  night  ever  passed  when  he  and  his  wife 
did  not  together  send  up  their  prayers  that  God 
would  bless,  and  protect,  and  keep  John  P.  Hale. 
And  not  alone  were  their  aspirations  wafted  heaven 
ward  for  his  welfare  ;  but  thousands  in  I^ew  Hamp 
shire,  and  everywhere  in  America  where  human 
hearts  were  beginning  to  stir  with  new  thoughts  of 


44  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

freedom,  sent  up  daily  their  petitions  to  the  Most 
High  to  cover  his  head  in  battle,  and  shelter  him 
under  the  shadow  of  His  wing.  The  "  Hale  storm  " 
of  1845  is  the  heroic  and  romantic  episode  of  our 
political  history,  and  veterans  who  lived  in  and 
have  survived  that  time  turn  back  to  the  period 
fondly  as  one  when  it  was  worth  while  to  live. 
Thus  the  conflict  went  on  through  the  summer 
days,  and 

••  His  was  the  voice  that  rang 
In  the  fight  like  a  bugle-call." 

Perhaps  its  most  striking  incident  was  the  cele 
brated  meeting  of  Mr.  Hale  and  Franklin  Pierce  at 
the  Old  North  church  in  Concord  on  the  9th  of 
June,  1845.  The  circumstances  were  suited  to 
exhibit  Mr.  Hale's  extraordinary  powers,  and  they 
were  displayed  to  the  greatest  advantage.  During 
that  week,  the  legislature  commenced  its  session.  A 
meeting  of  Independent  Democrats,  to  be  addressed 
by  Mr.  Hale,  had  been  called,  and  there  was  an 
unusual  assemblage  of  people  in  town  in  attendance 
upon  various  religious  and  benevolent  anniversaries. 
The  Democrats,  apprehensive  of  the  effect  of  such 
a  speech  upon  an  audience  so  intelligent  and  con 
scientious,  resolved  that  he  must  be  answered  on  the 
spot,  and  Franklin  Pierce  was  selected  as  the  only 
man  at  all  fitted  for  such  an  encounter.  The  old 
church  was  crowded  beyond  its  capacity.  Mr.  Hale 
spoke  for  two  hours,  making  a  calm,  dignified,  and 
effective  vindication  of  his  principles  and  conduct. 
Occasionally  rudely  interrupted,  he  never  lost  his 
temper,  nor  that  splendid  equanimity  which  availed 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  45 

him  on  so  many  occasions  in  debate.  He  rose  to  a 
surprising  eloquence  in  denunciation  of  slavery,  and 
at  the  end  it  was  manifest  that,  whether  they  agreed 
with  his  conclusions  or  not,  all  were  convinced  that 
he  had  been  actuated  by  pure  motives  and  a  high 
sense  of  public  duty. 

Mr.  Pierce  was  himself  a  nervous,  energetic,  and 
brilliant  orator;  but,  for  the  task  set  before  him,  he 
was  handicapped  by  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  record,  and  by  Mr.  Hale's  glowing  appeal  to 
the  nobler  sentiments  of  humanity,  lifting  the  plane 
of  discussion  entirely  above  its  ordinary  dead  level. 
He  replied  to  Mr.  Hale  in  a  passionate  and  impe 
rious,  not  to  say  insolent,  manner,  accusing  him  of 
ambitious  motives,  and  defending,  as  he  only  could, 
the  party  in  power  for  its  efforts  to  extend  the  area 
of  the  republic  by  bringing  the  vast  territory  of 
Texas  under  its  sway.  The  advantage  in  temper 
was  very  manifest,  and  when  Mr.  Hale  had  rejoined 
with  a  triumphant  vindication  of  his  own  motives 
and  purposes,  he  closed  with  this  magnificent  appeal : 
"  I  expected  to  be  called  ambitious;  to  have  my 
name  cast  out  as  evil.  I  have  not  been  disappoint 
ed.  But,  if  things  have  come  to  this  condition,  that 
conscience  and  a  sacred  regard  for  truth  and  duty 
are  to  be  publicly  held  up  to  ridicule,  and  scouted  at 
without  rebuke,  as  has  just  been  done  here,  it  mat 
ters  little  whether  we  are  annexed  to  Texas  or 
Texas  is  annexed  to  us.  I  may  be  permitted  to 
say  that  the  measure  of  my  ambition  will  be  full,  if, 
when  my  earthly  career  shall  be  finished  and  my 
bones  be  laid  beneath  the  soil  of  New  Hampshire, 
when  my  wife  and  children  shall  repair  to  my  grave 


46  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

to  drop  the  tear  of  affection  to  my  memory,  they  may 
read  on  my  tombstone,  *  He  who  lies  beneath  sur 
rendered  office,  place,  and  power,  rather  than  bow 
down  and  worship  slavery.' '  In  the  opinion  of 
Mr.  Hale's  friends,  his  victory  was  indisputable.  No 
debate  in  New  Hampshire  ever  had  such  interest, 
and  none  results  at  all  comparable  with  it  in  import 
ance.  Beyond  doubt  Mr.  Pierce's  effort  that  day 
made  him  president  of  the  United  States,  and  Mr. 
Hale's  led  to  the  triumph  of  his  party,  whereby  he 
became  the  first  anti-slavery  senator  and  the  recog 
nized  pioneer  champion  of  the  Free-Soil  movement. 
On  the  23d  of  September,  1845,  the  third  trial  was 
held  for  representative  in  congress,  resulting  in  a 
Democratic  defeat  by  about  the  same  vote  as  be 
fore,  the  Hale  men  holding  the  balance  of  power 
between  them  and  the  Whigs.  November  29, 1845, 
a  fourth  trial  left  the  Democrats  in  a  still  more  deci 
sive  minority;  and  then  the  final  struggle  for  mas 
tery  in  the  state  was  postponed  to  the  annual  elec 
tion,  March  10,  1846.  During  the  winter,  Mr.  Hale 
canvassed  the  state  again,  everywhere  the  admired 
champion  of  a  cause  now  manifestly  advancing  to 
certain  triumph.  The  result  was  a  complete  over 
throw  of  the  party  in  power  in  New  Hampshire,  the 
Whigs  and  Independent  Democrats  together  hav 
ing  both  branches  of  the  legislature,  and  a  consid 
erable  majority  of  the  popular  vote,  though  there 
was  no  election  of  governor  or  congressman  by  the 
people.  Mr.  Hale  was  chosen  a  representative  from 
Dover,  and,  by  a  coalition  of  Hale  men  and  Whigs, 
was  made  speaker  of  the  house.  Mr.  Colby,  the 
Whig  candidate,  was  elected  governor,  and,  on  the 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  47 

9th  of  June,  1846,  Mr.  Hale  was  chosen  United 
States  senator  for  the  full  term  of  six  years  com 
mencing  March  4,  1847.  Thus,  upon  an  issue  dis 
tinctly  joined,  the  Democracy  had  been  signally 
defeated,  and  the  Gibraltar  of  the  North  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  combined  opposition.  The 
first  and  strongest  outwork  had  been  carried  in  a 
square  contest  against  the  extension  of  a  system 
which  met  the  moral  reprobation  of  the  world,  and 
the  victory  proclaimed  that  never  again  was  New 
Hampshire  to  sit  supinely  by,  to  take  the  orders 
and  register  the  edicts  of  slavery.  The  note  of  defi 
ance  and  of  resistance  to  further  slavery  aggression 
rang  out  clear  and  strong  from  these  New  Hamp 
shire  hills,  and  was  heard  throughout  America. 
No  ear  so  dull  that  did  not  hear  it;  no  brain  so 
sluggish  that  did  not  comprehend  it.  As  armies 
in  mythologic  story  paused  in  mid-contest  to  watch 
the  issue  of  a  single  combat,  so  in  some  sense  the 
people  of  America  turned  to  observe  the  outcome 
of  this  struggle;  and  Mr.  Hale's  success  in  New 
Hampshire  in  resistance  to  slavery,  and  to  party 
subserviency  and  tyranny,  was  the  first  lightning 
gleam  of  victory  lighting  up  the  dark  clouds  that 
hung  over  the  country.  It  was  an  encouragement 
and  a  challenge  to  other  states  and  the  friends  of 
liberty  elsewhere.  An  inspired  singer  and  prophet 
of  anti-slavery  had  watched  the  struggle  with 
breathless  interest  from  his  home  just  across  our 
border,  and  it  called  out  from  him  that  immortal 
tribute  to  New  Hampshire,  which  will  live  with  her 
fame  and  the  name  of  John  G.  Whittier  forever: 


48  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

"  God  bless  New  Hampshire — from  her  granite  peaks 
Once  more  the  voice  of  Stark  and  Langdon  speaks. 
The  long  bound  vassal  of  the  exulting  South 
For  very  shame  her  self-forged  chain  has  broken, — 
Torn  the  black  seal  of  slavery  from  her  mouth. 
And  in  the  clear  tones  of  her  old  time  spoken  ! 
Oh,  all  undreamed  of,  all  unhoped  for  changes  ! 
The  tyrant's  ally  proves  bis  sternest  foe ; 
To  all  his  biddings,  from  her  mountain  ranges, 
New  Hampshire  thunders  an  indignant  No ! 
Who  is  it  now  despairs  ?   Oh  !  faint  of  heart, 
Look  upward  to  those  Northern  mountains  cold, 
Flouted  by  Freedom's  victor-flag  unrolled, 
And  gather  strength  to  bear  a  manlier  part ! 
All  is  not  lost.     The  Angel  of  God's  blessing 
Encamps  with  Freedom  on  the  field  of  fight ; 
Still  to  her  banner,  day  by  day,  are  pressing 
Unlooked  for  allies,  striking  for  the  right ! 
Courage,  then,  Northern  hearts  ! — Be  firm,  be  true  : 
What  one  brave  state  hath  done,  can  ye  not  also  do  ?" 

Here  were  the  first  fruits  of  John  P.  Hale's  man 
ly  resistance  to  slavery  in  America.  At  first  but  a 
feeble  protest,  scarcely  heard  amid  the  hosannas  of 
Northern  servility  to  the  slave  power,  it  had  swelled 
into  a  volume  of  indignant  opposition,  which  had 
swept  away  the  strongest  muniments  of  oppression 
in  the  North.  It  gave  courage  everywhere  for  the 
great  struggle  just  opening  before  this  people.  In 
the  words  of  Cardinal  Newman, "  We  did  but  light 
a  beacon  fire  on  the  summit  of  a  lonely  hill ;  and 
anon  we  were  amazed  to  find  the  firmament  on 
every  side  red  with  the  light  of  a  responsive  flame." 

And  now,  is  there  occasion  for  either  hesitation 
or  apology  in  making  claim  in  behalf  of  John  P. 
Hale  for  pioneership  in  the  great  Free-soil  move 
ment  which  finally  overthrew  slavery  in  the  United 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  49 

States?  New  Hampshire  was  the  first  battle-field 
of  the  new  crusade,  and  John  P.  Hale  commanded 
the  vanguard.  Aye,  more,  in  his  Texas  letter  he 
had  formulated  the  issues  upon  which  the  fight  was 
to  be  made  and  won,  the  identical  postulates  which 
were  afterwards  to  be  the  principles  of  a  great  polit 
ical  party  not  yet  born,  under  whose  lead  the  war 
was  to  be  fought  and  emancipation  come  to  the 
country  and  the  slave.  The  Hon.  Amos  Tuck,  one 
of  the  earliest,  ablest,  and  most  faithful  of  the  fol 
lowers  of  Mr.  Hale,  at  Downer  Landing  in  1878, 
met  the  claim  of  Massachusetts  that  the  Republi 
can  party  was  founded  there  in  1848,  by  showing 
that  that  party  was  anticipated  in  every  one  of  its 
ideas  by  the  Hale  party  in  New  Hampshire  in 
1845,  and  that  John  P.  Hale  won  his  election  as 
the  first  anti-slavery  senator,  and  sat  in  that  body, 
alone,  as  such,  for  two  years  before  a  friendly 
senator  came  to  join  him,  and  two  years  before  the 
date  which  Massachusetts  claims  for  her  patent. 
This  claim  for  New  Hampshire  and  for  Mr.  Hale  is 
impregnable.  Therefore  I  say  that  no  man  can  pre 
cede  Mr.  Hale  as  the  founder  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  all  that  is  implied  thereby:  and  that 
whatever  of  merit  may  attach  to  such  a  sponsor 
ship — and  I  know  full  well  that  many  still  regard  it 
as  a  cause  for  condemnation  rather  than  praise — 
that  whatever  of  glory  or  shame  there  be  in  it,  be 
longs  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  man.  I  must 
ask  indulgence  for  the  use  of  political  terminology, 
which  I  employ  because  I  find  our  resources  of  ex 
pression  inadequate  to  convey  any  clear  ideas  with 
out  using  the  terms  Democrat  and  Republican. 


50  THE   HALE   STATTJE. 

Mr.  Hale  took  his  seat  in  the  senate,  December 
6,  1847,  and  for  the  first  time  American  slavery 
was  confronted  in  his  person  by  the  aroused  moral 
sense  of  the  American  people.  From  his  first  dra 
matic  appearance  in  that  body  this  solitary  repre 
sentative  of  freedom  was  the  object  of  the  bitter 
hatred  and  disdain  of  the  slave  oligarchy.  He  en 
tered  a  senate  composed  of  thirty-two  Democrats, 
twenty-one  Whigs,  and  himself.  Declining  to  be 
classified  with  either,  he  unfalteringly  took  up  and 
held  the  position  of  an  anti-slavery  independent. 
He  declined  the  obscurity  to  which  both  sides  would 
have  relegated  him,  and  for  two  years  before  he 
was  joined  by  Chase  in  1849,  the  anti-slavery  move 
ment  centred  around  his  striking  personality,  and 
he  stood  there  alone,  resisting  at  every  step  the  ag 
gressive  measures  of  slavery,  maintaining  his  ground 
with  unsurpassed  resources  of  wit  and  logic,  elo 
quence  and  good  humor.  He  entered  resolutely 
into  the  public  business  and  had  to  stand  in  the 
breach  and  contend  single-handed  with  the  entire 
senate,  containing  then  not  only  the  great  triumvi 
rate  of  oratory  and  statesmanship,  but  also  many 
others  of  the  highest  distinction  and  ability.  He 
met  them  face  to  face,  and  dealt  sturdy  blows  for 
freedom  in  every  emergency.  His  weapons  were 
of  that  firm  edge  and  fine  temper  that  might  be 
broken,  but  would  not  turn,  in  their  impact  upon 
the  brazen  front  of  oppression.  Every  means  of 
silencing  him  was  resorted  to,  threats,  insults,  sneers, 
ridicule,  derision.  He  was  treated  with  studied 
contempt  by  the  South,  and  with  cold  neglect  by 
the  North.  He  was  denied  the  common  courtesy 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  51 

of  a  place  on  senatorial  committees,  being  told  pub 
licly  by  a  senator  who  was  afterward  expelled  from 
the  body  for  disloyalty,  that  he  was  considered  out 
side  of  any  healthy  political  organization  in  the 
country.  But  this  discipline  was  lost  on  him.  He 
had  the  moral  courage  which  shrinks  from  no  duty — 
that  calm,  firm,  cool,  inflexible,  resolution  which 
clinched  its  determination  to  go  straightforward 
with  Luther's  exclamation,  "  I  will  repair  thither 
though  I  should  find  there  as  many  devils  as  there 
are  tiles  on  the  house  tops.  I  cannot  do  otherwise, 
God  helping  me."  It  is  not  practicable  to  refer 
minutely  to  the  debates  in  which  Mr.  Hale  mingled 
in  the  senate.  In  1848,  in  the  discussion  upon  the 
admission  of  Oregon,  he  proposed  as  an  amendment 
the  ordinance  of  1787  excluding  slavery,  which 
gave  rise  to  a  fierce  debate,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  was  the  subject  of  most  personal  and  inflamma 
tory  denunciations.  He  defended  himself  with  con 
summate  ability,  declaring  his  determination  to 
press  the  prohibition  of  slavery  according  to  his 
own  judgment.  Said  he,  a  I  am  willing  to  place 
myself  upon  the  great  principle  of  human  right,  to 
stand  where  the  word  of  God  and  my  own  con 
science  concur  in  placing  me,  and  then  bid  defiance 
to  all  consequences."  Early  in  April,  1848,  upon 
resolutions  of  sympathy  with  the  up-risings  of  the 
down-trodden  nationalities  of  Europe,  Mr.  Hale 
spoke  in  the  senate  in  a  strain  of  sadness  mingled 
with  enthusiasm  and  a  lofty  hope  for  the  disenthrall- 
ment  of  all  men,  in  America  and  Europe  alike. 

In  a  debate  occasioned  by  certain  mob  demon 
strations  against  the  office  of  the  National  Era  in 


52  THE  HALE  STATUE. 

Washington,  Mr.  Hale  introduced  a  resolution  cop 
ied  from  the  laws  of  Maryland,  providing  for  the 
reimbursement  of  persons  whose  property  should 
be  destroyed  by  riotous  assemblages.  This  led  to 
a  controversy  with  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  which  the  great 
Southerner  forgot  his  usual  urbanity  and  became 
violently  personal,  and  ended  his  speech  by  saying, 
that  he  "  would  as  soon  argue  with  a  maniac  from 
Bedlam  as  with  the  senator  from  New  Hampshire 
on  this  subject."  Mr.  Hale  retorted  by  telling  Mr. 
Calhoun  that  it  was  a  novel  mode  of  terminating  a 
controversy  by  charitably  throwing  the  mantle  of  a 
maniac's  irresponsibility  upon  one's  antagonist.  In 
this  debate,  Mr.  Foote  of  Mississippi,  after  many 
insulting  expressions,  and  denouncing  Mr.  Hale's 
bill  as  "  obviously  intended  to  cover  and  protect 
negro  stealing,"  turned  to  Mr.  Hale  and  said:  "I 
invite  him  to  visit  the  good  state  of  Mississippi,  in 
which  I  have  the  honor  to  reside,  and  will  tell  him 
beforehand  hi  all  honesty,  that  he  could  not  go  ten 
miles  into  the  interior  before  he  would  grace  one  of 
the  tallest  trees  of  the  forest  with  a  rope  around 
his  neck,  with  the  approbation  of  every  virtuous 
and  patriotic  citizen;  and  that,  if  necessary,  I  should 
myself  assist  in  the  operation."  Mr.  Hale  replied: 
"  The  senator  invites  me  to  visit  the  state  of  Missis 
sippi,  and  kindly  informs  me  that  he  would  be  one 
of  those  who  would  act  the  assassin,  and  put  an  end 
to  my  career  *  *  *  Well,  in  return  for  his  hospit 
able  invitation,  I  can  only  express  the  desire  that 
he  should  penetrate  into  one  of  the  '  dark  cor 
ners  '  of  New  Hampshire,  and,  if  he  do,  I  am  much 
mistaken  if  he  would  not  find  that  the  people  in 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  53 

that  '  benighted  region '  would  be  very  happy  to  lis 
ten  to  his  arguments,  and  engage  in  an  intellectual 
conflict  with  him,  in  which  the  truth  might  be  elic 
ited."  The  ruffianism  of  the  assault,  and  the  noble 
ness  of  the  reply,  have  consigned  Senator  Foote, 
though  a  brilliant  and  by  no  means  a  bad  man,  to 
the  pillory  of  history,  with  a  soubriquet  given  him 
by  the  public  instinct  which  will  last  forever. 

He  opposed  the  whole  system  of  measures  pur 
sued  in  prosecuting  the  war  with  Mexico,  because, 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Webster  himself,  it  was  "  an 
iniquitous  war  made  in  order  to  obtain,  by  conquest, 
slave  territory."  In  December,  1849,  Mr.  Hale 
again  proposed  to  incorporate  the  ordinance  of  1787 
into  Mr.  Foote's  resolution,  declaring  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  congress  to  provide  territorial  governments 
for  California,  Deseret,  and  ^ew  Mexico. 

At  a  later  day  the  compromise  measures  of  1850, 
including  the  fugitive  slave  law,  which  he  loathed 
and  defied,  were  fought  by  him  with  all  the  weap 
ons  of  his  logic,  wit,  ridicule,  and  sarcasm,  and  with 
all  his  parliamentary  resources.  He  occupied  two 
days  in  an  elaborate  argument,  vindicating  the 
principles,  measures,  and  acts  of  anti-slavery  men. 

This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  powerful  of  his  sena 
torial  efforts.  In  it  he  grappled  resolutely  with 
the  morality,  the  statesmanship,  and  the  policy,  of 
Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  speech,  quoting  his 
former  declarations  against  himself,  agreeing  with 
Mr.  Webster  in  1848,  but  dissenting  from  him  in 
1850,  and  saying:  uYet  the  senator  says  he 
would  not  reenact  the  laws  of  God.  Well,  sir,  I 
would.  When  he  tells  me  that  the  law  of  God  is 


54  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

against  slavery,  it  is  a  most  potent  argument  for 
our  incorporating  it  with  any  territorial  bill  "  He 
closed  with  an  eloquent  presentation  of  the  princi 
ples  and  aims  of  the  Free-Soil  party,  of  which  he 
was  the  foremost  champion. 

The  abolition  of  flogging  in  the  navy  was  a  con 
genial  field  for  the  exertion  of  his  humane  spirit. 
In  the  senate  he  promptly  renewed  the  efforts  he 
had  commenced  in  the  house.  In  July,  1848,  he  mov 
ed  to  insert  in  the  naval  appropriation  bill  a  clause 
abolishing  the  spirit  ration  and  prohibiting  corporal 
punishment  in  the  navy.  He  addressed  the  senate 
in  its  favor,  but  only  four  senators  rose  with  him. 
In  February,  1849,  he  again  presented  petitions, 
and  made  a  strong  speech,  in  which  he  depicted  in 
glowing  colors  the  brutality,  degradation,  and  out 
rage  of  punishment  with  the  cat-o'-nine-tails,  but 
was  voted  down  by  32  to  17.  In  September,  1850, 
he  made  a  final  impassioned  appeal  to  the  senate  to 
stand  no  longer  in  the  way  of  the  abolition  of  flog 
ging  in  the  navy,  and  on  the  same  day  it  was  car 
ried  as  a  part  of  the  appropriation  bill  by  a  vote  of 
26  to  24,  and  was  concurred  in  by  the  house.  Thus 
at  last  his  efforts  were  crowned  with  success.  It 
was  a  joyful  day  for  the  American  navy  and  for 
humanity.  It  was  one  of  the  most  gratifying  inci 
dents  of  his  life  when,  two  years  after,  he  was  re 
ceived  by  Commodore  Nicholson  and  crew  on  board 
the  man-of-war  Germantown  in  Boston  harbor,  who 
thanked  him  for  his  noble  efforts  in  abolishing  flog 
ging  in  the  United  States  navy,  presented  him 
with  a  medal,  and  manned  the  yards  in  his  honor. 
It  was  not  till  twelve  years  after,  however,  that  he 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  55 

secured  the  abolition  of  the  spirit  ration.  His 
agency  in  these  beneficent  reforms  is  one  of  his 
chiefest  titles  to  honor,  and  is  most  fittingly  com 
memorated  011  the  pedestal  of  this  statue. 

Thus  upon  every  question  that  arose  he  sustained 
his  part  with  a  manliness,  a  courage,  and  a  nobility  of 
soul  which  extorted  the  admiration  of  foes  as  well 
as  friends.  To  adapt  the  language  of  Junius,  "  The 
rays  of  Southern  indignation  collected  upon  him 
served  only  to  illumine,  they  could  not  consume." 
The  estimate  placed  upon  his  services  and  character 
was  manifested  by  his  unanimous  nomination  for 
the  presidency  by  the  Liberty  party  at  Buffalo  in 
1847.  He  magnanimously  relinquished  this  candi 
dacy,  and  submitted  himself  to  the  will  of  the  later 
Free-Soil  convention  at  Buffalo  in  1848,  thus  mak 
ing  way  for  Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  was  there  nom 
inated  over  him  by  a  majority  of  40  votes.  Mr. 
Hale  afterwards  said  that  if  he  had  had  any  idea 
that  the  Barnburners  had  in  mind  only  to  revenge 
Mr.  Van  Buren's  wrongs  upon  Gen.  Cass  in  1848, 
he  would  have  lost  his  right  hand  before  he  would 
have  been  a  party  to  such  a  fraud.  In  August, 
1852,  the  Free-Soil  party  at  Pittsburg  nominated 
Mr.  Hale  as  its  candidate  for  president,  and  under 
the  banner  of  Free  Soil,  Free  Speech,  Free  Labor, 
Free  Men,  No  More  Slave  States,  and  no  Slave  Ter 
ritories,  he  received  at  the  election  155,850  votes. 

His  first  term  in  the  senate  is  the  period  of  focal 
interest  in  Mr.  Hale's  career.  He  was  the  gallant 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope.  He  was  the  avant  courier 
of  a  new  regime.  In  him  were  concentrated  in  germ 
all  the  forces  of  the  new  era.  Every  attempt  to 


56  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

suppress  him  proved  unavailing.  He  stubbornly 
contested  every  inch  of  ground.  He  stood  up  and 
battled  unfalteringly  for  his  principles  against  all 
threats,  all  intimidations,  all  allurements.  And  yet 
he  steered  clear  of  all  the  breakers  and  shoals  in 
such  a  dangerous  course.  His  tact  and  disposition 
alike  kept  him  always  within  the  proprieties  of  de 
bate.  The  enemies  who  hated  him  watched  in  vain 
for  some  word,  some  purpose  disloyal  to  the  Union 
which  they  affected  to  champion,  but  were  foiled  by 
the  absence  of  all  vindictive  feeling  or  speech,  and 
by  a  marvellous  moderation  and  self-restraint  in 
the  face  of  provocation.  Ignored,  socially  tabooed, 
insulted,  he  showed  no  resentment.  Assailed  ran- 
corously  on  all  sides,  he  replied  with  good-natured 
vehemence,  but  a  never-failing  courtesy.  Occasion 
ally,  however,  he  carried  the  war  into  Africa,  and 
transfixed  the  slave  power  with  the  keen  arrows  of 
satire  and  invective.  He  gave  the  giant  wrong  no 
rest  and  no  quarter.  He  charged  its  defenders 
in  front  and  flank  and  rear,  and,  returning  again 
and  again  to  the  combat,  while  his  assaults  were 
redoubled,  he  at  length  secured  a  comparative  im 
munity  from  personal  attack.  Thus  his  position 
lifted  him  into  a  grand  and  superb  isolation;  and 
now  that  we  stand  on  the  vantage  ground  which 
he  won  for  us,  we  are  able  in  some  degree  to  enter 
into  that  high  companionship,  and  into  the  elevation 
of  spirit  that  sustained  him  in  his  self-appointed 
role  of  austere  political  solitude.  As  has  been  said 
of  General  Gordon  "  we  know  to-day  that  he  alone 
was  awake  in  a  world  of  dreamers." 

Thus  for  two  years  one  great  heroic  figure  was 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  57 

prominently  before  the  eyes  of  America.  Solitary 
and  alone,  he  represented  in  the  senate  the  dawn 
ing  hope  of  freedom.  But  may  we  not  be  sure 
that  he  already  heard  behind  him,  in  imagination, 
the  on-coming  hosts  of  the  new  era,  closing  their 
ranks  and  advancing  to  the  last  onset  against  slav 
ery,  which  should  sweep  away  the  embattled  pha 
lanxes  of  oppression?  Did  he  not  have  something 
of  the  fine  instinct  of  that  Scottish  girl,  who,  laying 
her  ear  to  the  ground,  exclaimed,  with  streaming 
eyes  and  transfigured  face,  "  Dinna  ye  hear  the  slo 
gan?  It's  the  Campbells  a  comin'!"  So,  again,  on 
a  larger  battlefield  than  Lucknow,  where  greater 
issues  hung  in  the  balance,  "  the  Campbells  were 
a-comin',"  and  it  was  given  to  this  inspired  prophet 
of  anti-slavery  to  cheer  up  the  beleaguered  garri 
son  of  freedom,  to  make  one  more  struggle  and  hold 
out  for  the  victory.  The  Campbells  came — Chase 
and  Seward  and  Sumner  were  their  vanguard — a 
glorious  reenforcement,  and  from  that  moment  the 
forces  of  liberty  were  to  grow  and  grow,  till  the 
exasperated  enemy  should  compass  its  own  destruc 
tion  by  raising  its  hand  against  that  very  Union 
whose  sacredness  had  been  for  seventy  years  invok 
ed  in  its  defence. 

One  can  but  wish  for  a  more  elaborate  treatment 
than  is  here  permitted  of  Mr.  Hale's  senatorial  la 
bors,  and  to  reproduce  some  of  the  many  thrilling 
appeals  and  noble  sentiments  which  broke  from  his 
lips  in  the  great  discussions  of  his  first  term.  But 
the  student  of  the  history  of  that  exciting  period, 
and  the  lover  of  eloquence,  will  be  repaid  by  the 
perusal  of  those  great  debates,  and  will  rise  from 


58  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

them  with  an  enhanced  appreciation  of  the  splen 
did  powers,  no  less  than  the  grand  earnestness  and 
the  priceless  services  to  liberty,  of  John  P.  Hale. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  first  term  his  opponents 
were  in  control  of  New  Hampshire,  and  chose  his 
successor.  Mr.  Hale  then  proceeded  to  carry  out 
a  long  cherished  design  to  practise  his  profession 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  but  was  recalled  in  1855 
to  fill  the  senatorial  vacancy  occasioned  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  Atherton.  He  served  out  that  term, 
and  was  then  reflected  for  a  full  term  commencing 
in  1859.  During  these  ten  years  of  senatorial  ser 
vice  his  course  was  as  straight  as  gravity.  He 
stood  undismayed  and  with  unshaken  constancy 
amid  the  surges  of  a  fierce  contention,  and  nothing 
deflected  him  for  one  moment  from  that  line  of 
conduct  which  he  had  marked  out  as  the  path  of 
conscience  and  duty.  In  the  long  struggles  of 
that  momentous  period  Mr.  Hale  was  found  in  the 
forefront  of  every  debate  where  liberty  was  drawn 
in  peril.  His  speeches  on  the  various  phases  of 
the  Kansas  controversy,  the  Oregon  question,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  on  the  constitutional  status  of 
slavery,  on  the  province  of  the  supreme  court  in 
the  settlement  of  questions  of  law  and  political 
policy,  on  the  homestead  bill,  on  the  nefarious 
attempt  to  seize  Cuba — all  questions  antedating 
the  war,  are  among  the  historical  headlands  of  the 
epoch;  and  he  was  ever  the  same  bold  and  fearless 
advocate  of  that  policy  which  was  at  an  early  day 
to  take  control  of  the  destinies  of  the  United 
States. 

Meantime,  although  Mr.  Hale  had  gained  a  hear- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES. 


ing  for  freedom  in  the  United  States  senate,  and 
the  subject  of  slavery  was  now  open  for  discussion 
everywhere,  yet  it  is  beyond  denial  that  the  insti 
tution  had  made  a  distinct  advance  in  its  aggres 
sions  upon  the  North,  so  far  as  public  measures 
and  its  apparent  hold  upon  public  opinion  were 
concerned.  The  decade  from  1850  to  1860  was 
the  aggressive  decade  of  slavery.  Up  to  that  time 
a  geographical  barrier  had  stood  against  its  ad 
vance  beyond  certain  definite  limits.  But  that  was 
broken  down  by  their  success  in  securing  the  pas 
sage  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  by  the  aid  of  North 
ern  votes,  and  in  enforcing  it  in  the  streets  of 
Boston,  where  the  master  did  "  with  his  slaves  sit 
down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument,"  as 
Mr.  Toombs  had  insolently  boasted  to  Mr.  Hale, 
although  in  defiance  of  the  ominous  ground-swell 
of  liberty  that  shook  the  walls  of  Faneuil  Hall,  — 
by  their  victory  in  overthrowing  the  Missouri  com 
promise,  by  the  border-ruffian  outrages  in  Kansas 
whereby  a  soil  predestined  to  freedom  was  drenched 
with  the  blood  of  freemen,  and  by  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  At  the  opening  of  that  decade  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  had  already  fallen  into  the  deepest 
degradation  and  servility  to  slavery.  The  rabble 
of  the  cities,  poisoned  with  race  antipathies  and 
the  vanity  and  pride  of  power,  had  been  played 
upon  by  the  pliant  demagogues  of  the  North  till 
they  exhibited  a  sort  of  rabies  at  the  mention  of 
the  subject  of  slavery.  The  Whig  party,  whose 
public  utterances  had  been  till  this  time  full  of 
sounding  phrases  protesting  its  fidelity  to  liberty^ 
was  rapidly  and  surely  passing  under  the  yoke.. 


60  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

Cotton  and  trade,  greed  and  conservatism,  had 
done  their  work,  had  honeycombed  that  great 
organization,  and  left  it  only  a  thin  and  superficial 
veneering  of  anti-slavery  sentiment.  So  deter 
mined  was  the  ^North  to  stand  by  all  the  legal  pre 
tensions  of  slavery,  that  all  hope  of  its  removal  in 
the  Southern  states,  which  idealists  and  ultra 
abolitionists  were  dreaming  of,  was  now  foreclosed. 
The  only  problem  left  was  to  prevent  its  extension. 
It  could  not  be  hoped  to  recede — how  far  should  it 
advance?  Indeed,  the  friends  of  freedom  had  con 
fined  their  labors  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from 
the  territories,  not  venturing  to  assert  their  power 
over  it  even  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  where  the 
clanking  of  the  bondman's  chains  was  to  be  heard 
till  the  nation  should  be  shaken  by  the  throes  of 
the  Civil  War.  The  Free-Soilers  never  claimed 
any  right  to  legislate  against  slavery  in  the  South 
ern  states.  Within  those  limits  it  was  safe;  was 
entrenched  behind  the  constitution,  and  might  have 
remained  undisturbed  to  this  day,  had  they  abided 
by  that  line.  But  the  South  was  judicially  blind, 
and  made  every  advance  a  pretence  for  a  new 
aggression,  until  every  congress  was  the  theatre 
of  a  conflict  on  the  subject  ever  growing  more  and 
more  intense. 

Look  at  a  partial  catalogue  of  its  excesses  in  this 
decade.  In  1850  by  the  compromise  measures 
congress  renounced  all  authority  over  the  internal 
slave  trade,  exempted  California,  ~New  Mexico, 
and  Utah  from  all  restriction  as  to  slavery,  and 
enacted  the  fugitive  slave  law,  throwing  to  the 
North  the  poor  sop  of  abolishing  the  slave  trade 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  61 

in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  Missouri  com 
promise  was  overthrown  in  1854,  and  the  territory 
north  of  36  deg.  30  min.,  supposed  to  have  been 
shielded  from  the  possibility  of  contamination, 
thrown  open  to  slavery.  The  climax  of  outrage 
upon  the  North  was  reached  in  the  Dred  Scott  de 
cision,  whereby  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  of  the 
land  delivered  a  judgment  which  overturned  the 
law  of  the  world  that  slavery  was  a  merely  local 
and  municipal  institution,  and  announced  the  doc 
trine  that  the  constitution  protected  the  slave-holder 
in  his  "  property  "  wherever  he  might  go.  By  this 
decision,  making  slavery  national  and  freedom 
sectional,  slavery  became  the  public  law  of  the  re 
public;  and  its  unparalleled  infamy  justifies  Mr. 
Hale's  indignation  when  he  said  in  1864,  "  In  my 
humble  judgment  if  there  was  one  single,  palpable, 
obvious,  duty  that  we  owed  to  ourselves,  owed  to 
the  country,  owed  to  honesty,  owed  to  God,  when 
we  came  into  power,  it  was  to  drive  a  plowshare 
from  turret  to  foundation  stone  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States." 

Slavery  felt  itself  secure  only  so  long  as  it  could 
push  itself  into  new  fields;  and  therefore  not  only 
was  the  door  to  every  territory  thrown  open,  but 
a  raid  was  organized  upon  Cuba,  and  a  piratical 
jingoism  held  out  a  most  tempting  lure,  even  to 
cool  Northern  statesmen,  who  could  but  warm  to 
the  idea  of  a  universal  sway  over  the  world's  des 
tinies.  Sixty  years  before,  the  founders  of  the 
constitution  were  ashamed  of  slavery,  and  tried  to 
hide  it  away  under  obscure  phrases  from  history 
and  the  public  opinion  of  the  world.  Now,  minis- 


62  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

ters  of  the  gospel  unblushingly  defended  it.  The 
presence  of  slavery  had  of  course  subjugated  the 
Southern  churches — and  the  North  had  largely 
followed  suit  under  the  stimulus  of  the  commercial 
greed  that  occupied  the  pews.  Mrs.  Stowe's  satire 
upon  the  clergy  was  warranted  by  the  "  South-side 
Views  "  so  plentifully  served  up  to  us,  and  by  the 
overworking  of  the  texts  in  which  Canaan  was 
cursed,  and  Onesimus  sent  back  by  Paul  to  his 
master  Philemon,  Even  Dr.  Channing's  society 
deserted  him  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  on  ac 
count  of  his  anti-slavery  views. 

During  this  awful  time,  while  the  republic  was 
writhing  under  its  Nessus's  shirt  of  slavery,  goad 
ing  and  irritating  it  at  every  step  of  its  painful 
progress,  cowards  and  time-servers  were  lapping 
themselves  in  the  comfortable  assurance  that  slav 
ery,  being  wrong,  was  a  doomed  institution — and 
in  the  conservative  belief  or  the  dastardly  pretence 
that  change  was  to  come  about  solely  by  super 
natural  means,  by  slow  spiritual  influences  proceed 
ing  from  personal  religion.  And  so  we  saw  every 
where  around  us  that  spirit  of  concession,  the  lack 
of  moral  firmness,  the  recreancy  to  principle,  the 
abject  submission  to  Southern  usurpations,  which 
invited  constant  aggression.  During  this  period 
freedom  was  indeed  under  a  ban  at  Washington. 
Adulation  of  the  slave  oligarchy  was  the  fashion. 
To  be  a  Free-Soiler  was  to  be  excluded  from  the 
common  courtesies  and  privileges  of  the  capital. 
All  cabinet  positions,  all  public  offices,  all  com 
mittees  in  the  senate  and  house  were  held  by  pro- 
slavery  men.  An  infamous  code  of  morality,  both 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  63 

national  and  international,  prevailed.  Mr.  Buchan 
an  boldly  proclaimed  in  the  Ostend  manifesto  that 
if  Spain  should  refuse  to  sell  Cuba  to  the  United 
States,  "  then  by  every  law,  human  and  divine,  we 
should  be  justified  in  wresting  it  from  Spain,  if  we 
have  the  power."  In  the  raids  upon  Cuba  and  Cen 
tral  America,  the  ill-concealed  designs  against 
Mexico, — then  disorganized,  disintegrating,  and 
liable  at  any  moment  to  fall  into  our  hands  under 
one  pretence  or  another, — and  the  scarcely  veiled 
purpose  to  establish  a  great  continental  slave 
empire, — in  all  these  the  perfidy  and  rapacity  of 
the  system,  and  its  thirst  for  rapine  and  subjuga 
tion  were  fully  displayed;  and  in  these  acts  how 
vividly  we  now  see,  as  if  on  a  canvas  painted  by 
lightning,  all  the  black  features  of  the  moral  mon 
ster,  which,  in  the  war  that  followed,  displayed  the 
wild  and  frenzied  ferocity,  the  desperate  abandon 
of  cruelty,  which  was  seen  in  the  reign  of  terror 
of  the  French  regicides. 

Never  in  our  history,  however,  were  all  ap 
pearances  so  deceptive  as  in  this  terrible  decade 
when  slavery  was  holding  high  carnival  in  the 
great  republic,  when  it  dominated  society,  and  had 
seized  upon  every  attribute  of  power  in  the  govern 
ment.  There  are  those  here  who  knew  Washing 
ton  between  1850  and  1860.  The  star  of  slavery 
was  at  its  zenith,  and  as  it  began  to  descend  to  its 
setting,  it  lit  up  the  western  horizon  with  unwont 
ed  brilliancy.  One  saw  its  characteristic  pride,  its 
patrician  charm  of  manners,  its  stately  elegance  of 
forms  and  ceremonies.  But  these  were  only  a 
meretricious  gilt  of  hospitality  and  courtesy, 


64  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

shrouding  the  darkest  designs  that  ever  lurked  in 
the  heart  of  a  dominant  class.  As  the  Count  de 
Segur  said  of  France  in  the  day  of  her  approach 
ing  doom,  "  the  old  social  edifice  was  undermined, 
although  there  _  was  no  slightest  sign  of  its  ap 
proaching  fall." 

There  lay  latent  there  the  revolution,  to  be  pre 
cipitated  by  its  own  madness  indeed,  but  a  revolu 
tion  surcharged  with  the  dormant  energies  of  lib 
erty, — revolution,  which  the  Due  de  Broglie  calls 
"  that  delicate  and  dreadful  right  which  slumbers 
at  the  feet  of  all  human  institutions,  as  their  sad 
and  final  safeguard."  The  slave  oligarchy,  like  a 
man  smitten  with  mortal  disease  but  thinking  him 
self  in  perfect  health,  was  never  fuller  of  arrogance, 
of  fire,  of  the  pride  that  goeth  before  a  fall.  Wash 
ington  was  full  of  such  characters  as  only  appear 
in  a  society  on  the  brink  of  perishing, — its  Masons 
and  Slidells,  its  Davises  and  Footes,  its  Soules  and 
Brookses,  and  Wigfalls.  But  let  us  thank  God 
for  the  irrepressible  instincts  of  every  institution  at 
war  with  the  social  order.  Slavery  was  a  Philis 
tine  that  could  not  keep  the  peace.  -  Conscious 
that  it  could  only  live  by  extending  itself,  it  was 
ever  aiming  at  new  conquests.  It  overreached  it 
self.  Encroachment  after  encroachment,  outrage 
upon  outrage  followed,  till  at  length,  under  the 
faithful  resistance  of  a  few  men,  of  whom  John  P. 
Hale  was  the  pioneer,  the  question  of  slavery  be 
came  flagrant  and  omnipresent.  It  met  men  at 
every  turn  in  debate,  in  some  form  or  other  it  min 
gled  in  every  discussion  of  fact  or  principle,  and 
finally  became  the  sole  issue  to  be  tried  on  the 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  65 

battle-field  of  American  politics.  The  delicate 
silence,  the  bated  breath  with  which  "  the  peculiar 
institution "  had  been  regarded,  gave  way  to  the 
open  discussions  of  congress,  of  the  pulpit  awak 
ened  to  its  high  office,  of  the  press,  and  of  the 
hustings  all  over  the  land.  Its  supposed  sacred- 
ness  and  immunity  from  criticism  were  things  of 
the  past.  ~No  longer  was  this  gangrened  sore,  this 
leprous  stain,  shielded  from  public  gaze  by  the 
denial  of  the  right  of  petition,  of  liberty  of  debate, 
or  by  a  profound  unconsciousness,  or  indifference, 
or  the  trembling  fears  of  those  who  profited  by  a 
political  or  commercial  alliance  with  slave-holders 
— that  mercantile  class  which  Burke  described  as 
"  snuffing  with  delight  the  cadaverous  scent  of 
lucre." 

Nor  was  the  time  without  other  hopeful  signs. 
The  wheat  was  getting  sifted  from  the  chaff.  The 
Whig  party  became  defunct  in  1852,  and  the 
Democratic  party,  under  its  heavy  load,  was  totter 
ing  to  its  fall.  The  Conscience  Whigs  were  being 
differentiated  from  the  Cotton  Whigs,  and  Sew- 
ard,  Adams,  and  Palfrey,  Sumner  and  Wilson, 
Allen  and  Dana,  appeared,  while  Chase  and 
Banks,  Wilmot  and  Grow,  Rantoul  and  Boutwell, 
answered  back  from  the  Democratic  ranks,  and 
took  their  places  in  the  line  that  was  being  formed 
against  slavery.  And  so,  as  the  end  of  this  decade 
approached,  over  which  slavery  was  to  plunge  in 
to  a  yawning  abyss,  the  clouds  that  had  been  gath 
ering  on  the  horizon  began  to  overspread  and 
blacken  the  political  sky.  The  air  was  over 
charged  with  electricity.  The  day  of  retribution 


66  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

was  at  hand,  and  we  stood  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
rebellion.  But  when  the  sky  darkened  and  the 
storm  came  on,  such  had  been  the  charity,  the  for 
bearance,  and  the  love  for  his  whole  country  of 
the  first  anti-slavery  senator,  that  he  could  with  a 
perfect  conscience  say  with  the  parliamentary  Gen 
eral  Waller,  "  The  great  God  who  is  the  searcher 
of  my  heart  knows  with  what  reluctance  I  go  upon 
this  service,  and  with  what  perfect  hatred  I  look 
upon  a  war  without  an  enemy."  He  had  stood, 
proclaiming  the  solemn  warnings  of  history,  for 
thirteen  years  in  the  United  States  senate.  By 
masterly  argument,  again  and  again  had  he  dem 
onstrated  the  departure  of  the  country  from  the 
principles  of  the  constitution  and  of  the  men  who 
made  it,  and  in  burning  eloquence  shown  that  slav 
ery  was  a  barbarism  and  an  anachronism.  In  vain 
were  his  appeals;  but  he,  at  least,  had  stood 

"  Among  innumerable  false  unmoved. 
Unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrified, 
His  loyalty  he  kept,  his  love,  his  zeal ; 
Nor  number,  nor  example  with  him  wrought 
To  swerve  from  truth,  or  change  his  constant  mind 
Though  single.     From  amidst  them  forth  he  passed 
Long  way  through  hostile  scorn,  which  he  sustained 
Superior,  nor  of  violence  feared  aught ; 
And  with  retorted  scorn  his  back  he  turned 
On  those  proud  towers  to  swift  destruction  doomed." 

I  would  not  willingly  oifend  even  the  shred  of 
what  was  once  conceived  to  be  a  party  sentiment, 
by  any  word  of  indictment  of  American  slavery, 
much  less  of  the  men,  some  of  them  honest  and 
honored,  who  tried  to  save  it  in  its  fall.  But  if  I 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  67 

rightly  apprehend  the  present  conditions  of  public 
opinion,  the  horror  of  it  and  the  hostility  to  its  ex 
tension  and  aggrandizement  which  guided  the  po 
litical  course  of  Mr.  Hale,  are  now  become  the 
sovereign  and  universal  principle  of  men  and  na 
tions.  We  have  cast  slavery  aside  into  the  outer 
limbo  of  things  we  would  fain  forget.  We  have 
flung  it  into  the  dark  dungeon  of  loathsome 
things;  the  foul  heap  of  discarded  relics  of  barba 
rism  and  cruelty;  the  stakes,  the  racks,  and  thumb 
screws;  the  Towers  and  Bastiles  of  the  bloody 
past  of  humanity,  and  there  are  none  to-day  so 
poor  as  to  do  it  reverence. 

Political  liberty  is  a  development,  and  in  reading 
history  we  mark  the  various  stages  of  its  evolution. 
The  controversy  of  one  generation  becomes  the 
settled  doctrine  of  another,  and  the  stone  rejected 
of  the  builders  becomes  the  head  of  the  corner.  I 
protest  that  I  thresh  over  the  old  straw  of  contro 
versy  only  because  it  is  impossible  to  realize  the 
stress  of  Mr.  Hale's  heroic  warfare,  and  the  sig 
nificance  of  this  memorial,  without  trying  to  un 
derstand,  as  the  present  generation  can  only  faint 
ly  do,  the  nature  of  that  institution  which  it  was 
the  business  of  his  life  to  destroy.  Ah!  dear 
friends,  how  many  fearless  young  men,  then  in  the 
flower  of  their  strength,  are  now  sleeping  beneath 
the  sods  of  the  battle-field!  How  many  maimed 
and  wounded !  How  many  families  still  in  mourn 
ing!  How  many  mothers,  wives,  lovers,  in  tears 
that  will  not  cease  to  flow!  How  many  homes 
desolated  never  to  be  rebuilt!  What  a  sad  conflict 
between  two  sections  of  one  great  people !  And  what 


68  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

a  price  did  the  country  pay  for  the  peace  it  could 
have  had  for  the  asking  by  listening1  to  the  voice 
of  warning  and  of  conscience  uttered  for  the  first 
time  in  the  senate  by  JOHX  P.  HALE  ! 

During  the  war  Mr.  Hale  stood  unflinchingly  by 
all  those  principles  with  which  his  name  and  fame 
were  associated,  and  about  which  the  battle  raged 
for  four  long  years.  He  bore  a  conspicuous  part 
in  all  the  debates  of  the  senate  during  the  great 
struggle, — in  vindication  of  the  principles  and  con 
duct  of  New  England  and  New  Hampshire,  in 
denunciation  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  and  efforts 
for  its  repeal,  in  defence  of  himself  as  counsel  in 
the  fugitive  slave  cases  in  Boston,  and  in  Decem 
ber,  1860,  he  made  an  eloquent  appeal  for  the 
Union,  which  he  loved  with  a  devotion  far  deeper 
and  warmer  than  that  of  those  who  had  invoked 
its  sacred  authority  in  behalf  of  slavery  for 
thirty  years.  As  the  contest  progressed,  and  the 
black  flag  of  slavery  went  down  upon  one  after  an 
other  of  the  bulwarks  that  had  been  erected  for  its 
defence  in  those  sad  years  of  its  Quixotic  blind 
ness,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  helping  to  wipe  out 
the  black  code  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
abolishing  slavery  itself  there  in  1862.  Towards 
the  close  of  his  senatorial  career  he  took  a  joyous 
part  in  the  last  mighty  blows  against  the  slave 
system,  which  blotted  it  out  forever  from  our 
escutcheon — the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  reb 
els,  the  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  and,  final 
ly,  the  adoption  of  the  13th  amendment  to  the  con 
stitution,  which  prohibited  slavery  forever  there 
after  by  the  organic  law  of  the  land,  amid  the 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  69 

jubilations  and  fervent  thanksgivings  to  God  of  the 
slave,  and  of  every  lover  of  liberty  the  world  over. 

We  are  apt  perhaps  to  lose  sight  of  Mr.  Hale's 
great  merits  as  a  general  legislator  in  the  splendor 
of  his  services  for  liberty.  But  a  study  of  the 
public  records  will  disclose  his  vigorous  attention 
to  the  general  business  which  came  before  congress, 
in  which  he  labored  with  a  tireless  activity,  an  om 
nipresent  vigilance,  and  an  inflexible  persistency  of 
purpose  on  every  great  question  of  administration 
as  well  as  innumerable  matters  of  detail.  He  par 
ticipated  in  nearly  every  debate  that  took  place  in 
the  senate,  and  was  ever  found  the  consistent  advo 
cate  of  a  well  defined  administrative  policy.  He 
was  an  old-fashioned  economist.  Like  Fox,  he 
might  perhaps  have  boasted  his  ignorance  of  the 
"  dismal  science"  of  political  economy;  but  of  the 
economies  and  frugalities  of  the  truly  republican 
house-keeping  of  our  early  days  he  was  an  unswer 
ving  devotee.  He  was  invariably  for  reform,  for 
the  reduction  of  expenses,  the  correction  of  abuses, 
the  curtailment  of  extravagance,  the  lopping-oif  of 
superfluities  and  sinecures,  of  perquisites  and  ex 
cesses  in  official  emoluments.  He  was  against  con 
structive  charges  and  salaries,  jobbery,  and  profli 
gacy  of  every  kind.  He  was  against  aggression 
and  against  spoliation;  he  was  the  implacable  foe 
of  monopolies,  of  unjust  claims,  of  extortionate  raids 
upon  the  treasury,  of  frauds  and  corruptions  of 
every  kind.  He  was  the  friend  and  champion  of 
the  laborer  on  the  public  works,  the  private  soldier, 
and  the  common  sailor.  The  Congressional  Globe 
for  twenty  years  is  replete  with  his  untiring  efforts 


70  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

for  the  masses  against  the  classes.  He  returned 
daily  to  the  ever  recurring  struggle  on  these  lines 
with  a  vigilance,  a  courage,  a  boldness,  and  fertility 
of  resource  admirable  in  the  last  degree,  and  in  un 
changing  fidelity  to  these  principles  was  never 
found  wanting  for  sixteen  years  in  the  United 
States  senate.  ]STot  the  least  of  his  titles  to  praise 
is  found  in  the  brave  stand  he  took  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  navy  department,  and  his  fearless 
independence  in  exposing  maladministration  in  his 
own  party,  at  a  time  when  by  so  doing  he  subjected 
himself  to  the  criticism  of  some  friends,  though  he 
supported  every  step  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration 
in  putting  down  the  Rebellion.  His  activity  as  a 
senator  diffused  itself  over  all  the  questions  of  his 
day: — the  homestead  law,  internal  improvements, 
foreign  and  domestic  commerce,  the  tariff,  the  army 
and  navy,  education,  the  judiciary,  patents,  banks, 
appropriations,  the  civil  lists,  pensions,  public  lands, 
sub-treasury,  printing,  the  census,  the  franking 
privilege, — these  all  felt  his  touch.  The  topics  he 
discussed  embraced  the  whole  range  of  our  foreign 
and  domestic  relations,  our  trade  and  administration 
in  every  variety  of  form.  His  views  were  always 
clear,  practical,  comprehensive.  His  logic,  wit, 
and  humor,  his  tenacious  memory  of  legislative  prec 
edents,  his  old-fashioned  frugalities,  his  apt  illus 
trations,  his  parliamentary  .skill,  which  justified 
General  Cass  in  calling  him  "  a  most  adroit  parlia 
mentary  tactician," — all  these  were  brought  into  full 
requisition,  in  the  general  business  of  the  sessions. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  one  idea.  He  was  an  idealist 
indeed,  but  no  idealist  ever  had  a  more  stalwart 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  71 

common  sense,  or  less  of  the  visionary  about  him; 
and,  though  he  was  not  always  right,  no  public  man 
ever  took  so  decided  a  part  on  a  great  variety  of 
subjects  and  made  fewer  mistakes.  Despite  his 
anomalous  position  as  a  senator,  he  accomplished 
many  things  in  general  legislation  which  entitle  him 
to  public  gratitude,  and  was  frustrated  by  the  extrav 
agant  tendencies  of  his  time  in  others  which  would 
have  been  still  more  beneficial  to  the  country,  had 
it  been  wise  enough  to  follow  his  lead.  He  was 
the  most  typical  Jeifersonian  Democrat  of  his  time. 
Mr.  Hale  was  not  much  of  a  party  man.  He  was 
not  one  of  those, — 

''Who,  born  for  the  universe,  narrowed  his  mind 
And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

He  was 

''  For  a  patriot  too  cool,  for  a  drudge  disobedient, 
And  too  proud  of  the  right  to  pursue  the  expedient." 

Political  ties  always  sat  loosely  upon  him.  He 
used  party  connections  to  subserve  purposes,  and 
when  he  thought  his  duty  lay  in  another  direction 
he  burst  asunder  the  partisan  leading-strings  with 
out  compunction.  He  was  neither  a  party  leader 
nor  a  party  follower.  He  was  not  pliant;  his  mind 
was  simple  and  direct;  he  wanted  policy,  and  was 
no  more  tolerant  of  wrong  in  his  own  party  than  in 
any  other.  Hated  by  the  enemies  of  liberty  on  the 
one  hand,  he  was  assailed  by  zealots  of  freedom  on 
the  other  for  his  conciliatory  temper,  his  freedom 
from  political  acerbity,  and  his  refusal  to  endorse 
projects  of  disunion  or  any  other  extravagances. 


72  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

A  sound  discretion,  and  even  a  wise  conservatism 
governed  him.  He  loved  to  travel  super  antiquas 
mas,  and  the  precedents  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom 
were  the  guiding  stars  of  his  political  life.  Unwill 
ing  to  go  all  length,  and  too  independent  to  submit 
to  dictation,  he  represented  no  party,  no  group 
even, — he  was  no  exponent  of  others ;  he  was  a  type 
of  himself.  Without  affecting  airs  of  independence, 
he  was  the  most  truly  independent  man  in  America. 
Those  of  us  who  loved  him  and  would  stand  guard 
over  his  fame,  are  not  pained  to  hear,  as  we  some 
times  do,  that  he  knew  how  to  behave  in  the  mi 
nority  much  better  than  in  the  majority. 

Mr.  Hale's  general  political  views  were  broad  and 
well  denned  and  coordinated,  and  gave  unity  of 
purpose  to  his  political  life.  His  creed  at  bottom 
was  embodied  by  Burke  in  his  definition  of  the 
principles  of  true  politics  as  "  those  of  morality  en 
larged,"  or,  in  other  words,  that  in  politics  "  noth 
ing  is  right  that  is  not  right,  just  that  is  not  just." 
He  had  none  of  that  revolutionary  spirit  which 
rudely  breaks  with  all  the  traditions  of  the  past.  If 
there  were  contradictions  in  our  institutions,  he  was 
content  to  tolerate  them  till  the  general  conscience 
and  intelligence  should  be  awakened  to  such  anom 
alies,  and  make  those  institutions  homogeneous.  He 
was  no  innovator  or  fanatic.  He  stood  by  the  fabric 
of  the  constitution,  and  the  Union  he  reverenced 
with  a  fervor  not  surpassed  even  by  Webster  himself. 
In  this  respect,  in  his  willingness,  often  expressed, 
even  to  abide  by  and  carry  out  fairly,  honestly,  and 
in  good  faith  what  were  termed  the  compromises  of 
the  constitution,  he  differed  toto  coelo  from  Garrison, 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  73 

Phillips,  and  others  of  the  abolitionists.  Let  us  do 
justice  to  those  from  whom  Mr.  Hale  diifered  in  this 
respect.  Such  was  their  view  of  the  pro-slavery 
clauses  of  the  constitution  that  they  indignantly 
spurned  them,  and  fled  for  refuge  to  that  "  higher 
law  "  which  Mr.  Webster  in  derision  said  ''  soared 
an  eagle's  flight  above  the  tops  of  the  Alleghanies." 
They  dealt  only  with  the  abstract  question  of  right, 
claimed  a  discharge  of  conscience  from  all  complicity 
with  slavery,  and  demanded  an  immediate  and  un 
conditional  manumission. 

It  is  still  an  unsettled  question  whether  the  efforts 
of  statesmen  like  Mr.  Hale  were  hampered  by  im 
practicable  theories  of  doctrinaires  who  renounced 
political  action  as  implying  allegiance  to  a  constitu 
tion  which  recognized  and  sanctioned  slavery. 
Many  regarded  these  scruples  as  puerile,  and  a  hin 
drance  to  the  progress  of  the  cause  within  constitu 
tional  and  legal  lines.  There  was,  however,  but 
little  danger  to  liberty  from  those  who  refused  to 
obey  the  fugitive  slave  law.  History  is  full  of 
proofs  that  a  disobedience  of  the  statutes  of  men 
may  imply  a  higher  and  deeper  reverence  for  the 
laws  of  God.  Admitting  the  danger  of  leaving 
citizens,  each  for  himself,  to  judge  of  the  law  and 
their  obligation  to  obey  it,  yet  those  who  are  so 
tremblingly  afraid  of  stranding  the  ship  of  state  on 
this  Scylla,  should  remember  the  awful  dangers  of 
the  Gharybdis  on  the  other  side,  and  that  no  gov 
ernment  worthy  to  live  was  ever  wrecked  by  those 
who  obeyed  the  behests  of  conscience. 

We  are  not  here  to-day  to  cast  a  doubt  upon  those 
men  who  formed  the  American  Anti-Slavery  soci- 


74  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

ety,  which  Mr.  Frederick  Douglass  calls  "  the  most 
efficient  generator  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the 
country,"  and  whose  heroism  has  given  them  an 
enduring  place  in  history.  But,  whether  it  be  to 
his  credit  or  discredit,  it  is  certainly  true  that  Mr. 
Hale  had  little  or  no  sympathy  with  extremists; 
made  no  assaults  upon  church  or  state;  stood  aloof 
from  all  schemes  of  disunion,  and  discountenanced 
every  thought  of  disloyalty.  This  was  not  his  line 
of  thinking  or  of  action ;  he  proposed  to  act  politi 
cally  in  the  Union,  by  circumscribing  slavery  and 
pressing  it  to  death  by  a  cordon  of  free  states.  Mr. 
Hale  took  the  ground  that  the  constitution  was 
essentially  an  anti-slavery  document.  The  Buffalo 
convention  of  1848  admitted  that  slavery  in  the 
states  was  protected  by  the  constitution,  and  the 
Free-Soil  party  had  no  intention  to  attack  it  where 
it  existed  under  the  sanction  of  law.  The  Free-Soil 
convention  at  Pittsburg  in  1852  neither  raised  nor 
lowered  the  standard;  and  its  lineal  successor,  the 
Republican  party,  did  not  at  all  grapple  with  eman 
cipation  in  the  states, — not  even  in  the  District  of 
Columbia, — its  whole  policy  looked  simply  to  its 
circumscription.  But  the  event  shows  how  urgent 
and  how  indispensable  was  the  need  of  a  Free-Soil 
party.  That  want  Mr.  Hale  and  others  supplied, 
no  doubt  holding,  in  solution  at  least,  the  faith 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  afterwards  so  tersely  formulated 
in  the  memorable  words :  "  If  a  house  be  divided 
against  itself  it  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  gov 
ernment  cannot  permanently  endure  half  slave  and 
half  free."  They  had  found  the  heel  of  Achilles; 
they  had  divined  the  weakness  of  slavery,  and  the 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  75 

essential  conditions  of  its  progress  and  immunity. 
Then  only  the  great  problem  approached  its  solu 
tion  when  "  no  more  slavery  extension"  became  the 
watchword  of  a  distinct  political  organization,  draw 
ing  to  itself  more  and  more  the  humane  sympathies 
and  the  generous  ardor  of  the  world. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Hale  stood  by  the  constitu 
tion.  So  thoroughly  loyal,  indeed,  was  he  to  that 
instrument,  that  amid  the  thunder  and  agony  of 
the  Rebellion,  he  parted  company  with  his  political 
friends  on  the  confiscation  bill,  which  he  opposed 
because  it  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  constitu 
tion.  Said  he :  "I  want  constitutional  liberty  left 
to  us  when  the  war  is  over.  Constitutional  liberty 
is  the  great  boon  for  which  we  are  striving,  and  we 
must  see  to  it  that,  in  our  zeal  to  put  down  the  Re 
bellion,  we  do  not  trample  on  that;  and,  that  when 
the  war  is  over,  and  our  streamers  float  in  the  air, 
in  that  breeze  also  may  still  float  the  old  flag,  and 
over  this  regenerated  country  may  still  sway  a 
sacred  and  unviolated  constitution,  in  the  faithful 
maintenance  of  which  in  the  hour  of  our  peril  and 
our  trial  we  have  not  faltered." 

But  he  was  110  priest  of  the  constitution.  His 
divinations  were  at  another  shrine,  even  that  of 
liberty.  We  have  had  such  a  priest.  He  stands 
there,  [pointing  to  Mr.  Webster's  statue]  overlook 
ing  us  with  his  awful  solemnity,  his  brow  of  Jove, 
and  all  the  majesty  of  his  god-like  presence  to-day. 

But  with  Mr.  Hale  the  constitution  was  110  fetich. 
He  loved  it  for  what  it  was,  and  as  he  understood 
it.  He  could  reverence  it  only  for  what  it  meant; 
and,  if  shown  that  it  meant  the  perpetual  domina- 


76  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

tion  of  one  race  or  class  and  the  bondage  of  another, 
he  would  have  looked  upon  it  as  the  Liberator 
proclaimed  it  in  1844,  as  "  a  covenant  with  death, 
and  an  agreement  with  hell."  If  it  meant  that,  John 
P.  Hale  could  no  more  have  obeyed  and  endured  it 
than  could  Pym  or  Hampden  the  star  chamber,  the 
collection  of  ship  money,  or  the  exactions  of  arbi 
trary  prerogative,  or  Samuel  Adams  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  stamp  act,  Luther  the  sale  of  indul 
gences,  or  Mirabeau  the  perpetual  dominance  of  the 
Bourbons.  His  was  a  higher  and  nobler  interpre 
tation  of  the  organic  law  of  our  fathers;  and,  claim 
ing  shelter  under  its  broad  aegis,  he  stood  forth  in 
defiance  of  the  delusion  of  his  time  to  assert  the 
essential  brotherhood  of  man,  and  his  right  to  the 
liberties  formulated  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence.  In  other  days,  a  century  or  two  before,  this 
intrepid  stand  in  the  face  of  power  would  have  sub 
jected  him  to  a  glorious  imprisonment  or  to  the 
block.  But  truth  was  already  emancipated  from 
the  grosser  forms  of  tyranny.  Who  can  doubt 
that  even  if  the  old  means  of  extirpating  freedom  of 
thought  had  still  existed,  John  P.  Hale  would  have 
taken  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  proclaimed  unfalter 
ingly  the  faith  that  was  in  him,  like  John  Pym, 
who,  in  the  crisis  of  English  liberty,  cried  that  he 
"  would  much  rather  suffer  for  speaking  the  truth 
than  that  the  truth  should  suffer  for  want  of  his 
speaking." 

Those  are  rightly  accounted  great  who  blaze  out 
new  pathways  for  the  race.  Says  Froude,  "  Those 
whom  the  world  agrees  to  call  great,  are  those  who 
have  done  or  produced  something  of  permanent 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  77 

value  to  humanity."  Do  any  of  our  American 
statesmen  better  answer  this  requirement?  In  a 
great  crisis  his  was  the  initiative.  He  grappled 
single-handed  and  alone  with  the  greatest  problem 
and  the  highest  duty  of  his  time.  Slavery  lay  like 
a  night-mare  upon  the  republic,  weakening,  poison 
ing,  degrading  it,  arresting  its  development,  stifling 
its  liberty.  And  who,  we  may  well  ask,  aroused  it 
from  its  torpor,  from  the  body  of  its  death?  "Who 
so  emphatically  as  he  gave  the  word  for  the  resur 
rection  of  the  true  national  spirit?  It  was  he,  in 
deed,  who  iinpressed  the  heart  and  brain  of  his  gen 
eration,  who  pronounced  the  right  word  at  the  right 
moment,  and  uttered  it  in  accents  that  burned  it  into 
the  imaginations  and  feelings  of  millions.  When 
other  men  called  great  were  dallying  and  compro 
mising,  and  striking  hands  with  an  evil  with  which 

there  should  have  been  no  truce  and  no  terms,  he 

• 

assailed  it  in  its  stronghold,  and  carried  its  strong 
est  outwork.  He  first  attuned  the  voice  of  a  state 
to  the  rhythm  of  liberty,  and  from  his  lips  first 
sounded  the  high  note  of  freedom  in  the  United 
States  senate.  And  in  that  great  body,  where  me 
diocrity  cannot  for  any  length  of  time  seize  the  palm 
of  excellence,  where  no  pretence  can  escape  detect 
ion  or  weakness  pass  for  strength,  he  maintained 
his  position  triumphantly  against  all  assailants  for 
sixteen  years.  He  mingled  in  all  the  contentions 
of  the  most  tempestuous  period  of  our  history;  one 
after  another  he  broke  lances  with  all  the  great  ac 
tors  on  the  national  scene  and  was  never  discomfited. 
He  has  left  in  the  public  records  a  body  of  utter 
ances  worthy  of  the  study  of  after-times,  made  un- 


78  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

der  every  variety  of  circumstances,  under  insult  and 
contumely,  under  taunt  and  provocation;  yet  no 
where,  on  his  part,  is  there  any  recrimination,  any 
appeal  to  passion,  to  unworthy  prejudice,  to  unman 
ly  feeling;  but  everywhere  and  throughout  a  genu 
ine  sincerity,  a  noble  philanthropy,  a  sublime  enthu 
siasm  for  humanity,  and  an  unswerving  faith  in  its 
ultimate  destiny.  You  shall  find  in  all  his  impass 
ioned  appeals  not  one  doubt  cast  upon  the  reality  of 
human  progress,  or  the  eventual  triumph  of  those 
principles  which  had  asserted  their  control  of  his 
political  life. 

From  a  recent  review  of  this  whole  series  of 
speeches  and  votes  in  and  out  of  the  national  arena, 
I  am  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  there  is  no 
more  honorable  and  conspicuous  record  in  American 
public  life.  It  is  a  record  marked  by  a  high  ethical 
tone,  by  conscientious  conviction,  by  fidelity  to  truth, 
by  a  standard  of  public  duty  modelled  upon  the 
best  traditions  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom,  and  by 
maxims  drawn  from  a  wide  study  and  clear  reading 
of  the  history  of  human  liberty  and  progress  in  all 
ages.  I  go  further.  He  was  the  man  for  his  time 
and  mission.  He  had  a  message  for  his  generation, 
and,  as  much  as  any  man  ever  was  in  political  an 
nals,  was  providentially  sent  and  equipped  for  the 
great  tournament  in  which  he  played  his  part.  And 
I  add  the  further  belief  that  no  intelligent,  reflective, 
and  unprejudiced  mind,  conversant  personally  with 
the  events  of  that  time,  can  rise  from  the  study  of 
his  public  efforts  and  the  story  of  his  life,  without  the 
conviction  that  no  other  public  man  in  America  was 
equal  to  what  he  did, — that  none  had  the  peculiar 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  79 

qualities  in  so  high  a  degree  to  fill  the  great  post  to 
which  he  was  called  as  the  first  anti-slavery  senator. 

Engaged  in  the  work  of  statesmanship,  which 
largely  diverted  him  from  the  studies  and  practice 
of  his  profession,  Mr.  Hale  was  still  a  most  distin 
guished  lawyer.  He  occasionally  appeared  in  the 
courts  of  New  Hampshire  throughout  his  career; 
and  there  was  no  time  after  1840  when  his  services 
were  not  sought  in  cases  of  the  highest  importance, 
and  when  he  was  not  esteemed  to  hold  a  place  as 
an  advocate  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession.  In 
1851  he  was  engaged  as  senior  counsel,  with  such 
lawyers  as  Dana  and  Ellis,  in  the  argument  of  the 
slave  rescue  cases  in  Boston.  In  his  recent  book 
Mr.  Dana  speaks  of  him  as  having  argued  the  case 
of  Lewis  Hayden  nobly  and  with  passages  of  great 
eloquence.  It  was  in  this  case,  in  the  defence  of 
the  rescuers  of  Shadrach,  that  occurred  that  won 
derful  burst  of  eloquence : 

"John  Debree  claims  that  he  owns  Shadrach. 
Owns  what?  Owns  a  man!  Suppose,  gentlemen, 
John  Debree  should  claim  an  exclusive  right  to  the 
sunshine,  the  moon,  or  the  stars !  Would  you  sanc 
tion  the  claim  by  your  verdict?  And  yet,  gentle 
men,  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  the  moon 
shall  grow  old  and  decay,  the  sun  shall  fail  to  give 
its  light,  the  heavens  shall  be  rolled  together  as  a 
scroll,  but  the  soul  of  the  despised  and  hunted 
Shadrach  shall  live  on  with  the  life  of  God  himself ! 
I  wonder  if  John  Debree  will  claim  that  he  owns 
him  then ! " 

In  one  of  his  letters  Mr.  Sunnier  said  that  Mr. 
Hale  had  said  many  things  better  than  any  of  the 


80  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

rest  had  been  able  to  say  them,  and  referred  to  this 
speech  particularly  as  one  that  had  been  reported 
to  him  as  worthy  of  Curran  or  Erskine. 

Still  later  he  was  leading  counsel  in  the  defence 
of  Theodore  Parker,  who  stood  indicted  for  ob 
structing  the  fugitive  slave  law  process  in  the  case 
of  Anthony  Burns.  The  trial  came  on  in  April, 
1855,  and  attracted  universal  interest.  The  indict 
ment  was  quashed  by  the  court  upon  the  argument 
of  Mr.  Hale's  associates,  and  so  odious  was  the  pros 
ecution  that  the  representatives  of  the  government 
were  only  too  eager  to  hide  themselves  from  public 
scorn  by  entering  a  nolle  prosequi  in  all  other  cases. 

But  Mr.  Parker  afterward  published  a  noble  de 
fence,  which  he  dedicated  "  to  John  Parker  Hale 
and  Charles  Mayo  Ellis,  Magnanimous  Lawyers, 
for  their  labors  in  a  noble  profession,"  and  speaks  of 
them  as  "  generous  advocates  of  humanity,  equal 
ling  the  glories  of  Holt  and  Erskine,  of  Mackintosh 
and  Romilly,  in  their  eloquent  and  fearless  defence 
of  truth,  right,  and  love." 

In  this  "  Defence "  Mr.  Parker  also  refers  to 
Mr.  Hale  as  "  the  noble  advocate  of  justice  and 
defender  of  humanity,"  and  as  "  renewing  the 
virtuous  glories  of  his  illustrious  namesake,  Sir 
Matthew  Hale," — and,  again,  of  "  the  masterly 
eloquence  which  broke  out  from  the  great  human 
heart  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Hale,  and  rolled  like  the 
Mississippi  in  its  width,  its  depth,  its  beauty,  and 
its  continuous  and  unconquerable  strength." 

To  those  who  knew  Mr.  Parker,  himself  an  ora 
tor,  philanthropist,  and  one  of  the  grandest  charac 
ters  of  his  age,  such  tributes  to  Mr.  Hale's  genius 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  81 

are  an  offering  of  no  small  value,  and  not  without 
a  deep  significance. 

The  earliest  efforts  of  Mr.  Hale  announced  him 
an  orator  of  unusual  force  and  power.  Even  before 
practice  had  given  him  a  national  reputation,  he 
was  endowed  highly  with  the  gift  of  persuasion  and 
a  captivating  charm  of  manner.  He  possessed  in 
an  uncommon  degree  many  of  the  external  advan 
tages  of  a  popular  speaker, — an  imposing  person, 
a  countenance  of  extraordinary  manly  beauty  and 
nobleness,  a  well  modulated  and  resonant  voice,  a 
prompt  command  of  words,  a  perfect  command  of 
his  temper.  His  language  was  fluent;  his  manner, 
easy,  confident,  unaffected;  his  delivery,  impressive; 
his  self-possession,  perfect.  His  eloquence  was 
spontaneous,  rather  than  the  fruit  of  patient  labor. 
It  yielded  to  no  rules  of  art;  it  was  clogged  and  en 
cumbered  by  no  useless  impedimenta  of  learning  or 
philosophy;  but  it  came  like  a  fountain  bursting 
from  the  earth ;  it  was  the  warm  effluence  of  a  sym 
pathetic  heart,  a  fervid  soul,  a  deep  humanity,  find 
ing  utterance  on  the  tongue,  inspiring  every  accent, 
and  informing  every  feature. 

In  the  presentation  of  a  cause  to  a  popular  audi 
ence  he  was  wellnigh  irresistible.  His  clear  and 
copious  diction,  his  imperturbable  good  nature,  his 
fairness  and  generosity,  his  apt  stories,  his  manifest 
sincerity  and  disinterestedness  cleared  all  obstacles 
from  his  path  and  gave  him  a  power  before  great 
popular  assemblies  in  which  he  had  but  few  rivals. 
Traditions  still  live  of  his  triumphs  as  a  popular 
orator  before  great  masses  of  people  under  the  open 
sky,  which  alone  seemed  to  give  room  for  the  full 


82  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

play  of  his  faculties,  as  it  did  to  O'Connell,  as 
well  as  those  forensic  contests  where  verdicts  were 
charmed  away  from  the  leaders  of  the  bar  by  the 
sorceries  of  his  eloquent  tongue. 

He  was  the  most  natural  of  orators.  His  best 
efforts  were  short,  impassioned  improvisations,  ap 
parently  without  study  or  forethought.  He  did  not 
torment  invention  for  words.  He  affected  no  the 
atrical  attitudes,  and  was  little  solicitous  for  either 
diction  or  manner,  but  was  content  to  grasp  strong 
ly,  and  present  forcibly  and  earnestly,  the  sub 
stance  of  his  argument,  and  always  with  a  definite 
purpose  in  view. 

His  speeches  underwent  no  revision.  He  never 
cared  to  give  them  the  last  polish  of  his  pen. 
They  were  dashed  off  with  a  careless  and  negligent 
ease,  and  were  extemporary  in  the  sense  of  having 
never  been  composed  in  set  phrase,  or  laboriously 
fashioned  into  periods.  He  scattered  these  gems 
of  speech  like  a  king  whose  resources  were  as 
capricious  as  inexhaustible.  He  was  thoughtless  of 
their  fate,  and  now  they  have  to  be  laboriously 
hunted  out  from  the  columns  of  the  Congressional 
Globe,  or  of  fugitive  newspapers.  But  they  will 
repay  the  search.  If  they  are  not  marked  by  liter 
ary  finish,  they  are  instinct  with  fervent  earnest 
ness  and  impetuosity.  Everything  was  done  by  him 
without  apparent  exertion.  His  efforts  seemed  to 
flow  from  an  exuberant  fountain,  and  bore  no  marks 
of  labor  or  tension  of  mind. 

Without  any  pretensions  to  profound  learning, 
Mr.  Hale  had  those  immediate  intellectual  re 
sources  that  give  readiness  in  debate.  To  the 


UN  VEILING   CEREMONIES.  83 

very  marked  combination  of  parliamentary  talents 
already  named,  he  added  a  prodigious  memory, 
holding  his  facts  firmly  in  hand,  and  drawn  up 
ready  for  instant  mobilization.  It  would  be  a  mis 
take  to  suppose  him  lacking  in  mental  power;  he 
was  never  wanting,  when  occasion  demanded,  to 
the  logical  support  of  his  positions.  Although  he 
was  never  very  patient  of  laborious  research,  nor 
inclined  to 

"  Scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days," 

yet  his  constitutional  learning,  especially  in  all  those 
departments  requisite  to  the  defence  of  personal 
liberty,  was  ample;  but  what  is  better,  the  learning 
he  had  was  aglow  with  vitality,  always  at  the  com 
mand  of  a  tenacious  memory,  and  warmed  by  his 
eager  blood  and  intellectual  vehemence.  If  any 
doubt  his  great  ability,  even  when  stripped  of  the 
glamour  of  oratory,  let  him  carefully  read  his 
speeches  on  the  constitutional  status  of  slavery,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  the  supreme  court,  and  the  re 
peal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  He  sustained  him 
self  with  ease  in  the  senate  in  competition  with  the 
giants  of  debate,  and  did  all  with  such  good  nature 
as  to  provoke  no  hatred  or  personal  violence.  He 
went  in  and  out  unarmed  amid  the  murderous  as 
sassins  of  slavery,  holding  aloft  the  banner  of  free 
dom,  "  still  full  high  advanced,"  till  Chase  and 
Sumner,  Seward  and  Wade  came  and  interlocked 
their  shields  with  his,  and  the  invincible  phalanx  of 
Liberty  was  never  broken. 

I  am  at  a  loss  to  compare  John  P.  Hale  with  any 


84  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

other  orator.  In  the  spontaneous  and  easy  play  of 
extraordinary  natural  powers  he  was  not  unlike 
Fox,  the  great  English  orator  and  statesman.  ]STor 
was  he  unlike  that  greatest  debater  that  ever  lived 
in  the  vehement  rush  and  torrent  of  his  declama 
tion;  and  hearing  him  sometimes,  when  he  rose 
almost  above  competition  in  bursts  of  indescribable 
power,  we  seemed  to  realize  Person's  meaning 
when  he  said, — "  Mr.  Pitt  conceives  his  sentences 
before  he  utters  them.  Mr.  Fox  throws  himself  into 
the  middle  of  his  and  leaves  it  to  God  Almighty 
to  get  him  out  again."  So  it  was  with  Mr.  Hale. 
He  soared  to  the  most -adventurous  heights  of  elo 
quence;  but,  when  you  were  trembling  for  his  fall, 
he  always  came  safely  to  earth  again  from  the  most 
daring  flight,  and  alighted  on  his  feet,  the  orator  of 
common  sense,  of  shrewd  mother-wit,  of  homely 
and  commonplace  illustration,  as  well  as  the  emo 
tional,  kindling  orator  of  enthusiasm,  his  heart  on 
fire,  and  his  lips  touched  with  a  divine  flame. 

But,  after  all,  there  is  in  every  great  orator  a 
something  indescribable,  a  something  peculiar  to 
himself,  which  differentiates  him  from  all  others. 
Mr.  Hale  imitated  no  one,  and  was  himself  inimit 
able,  though  he  had  studied  the  great  orators  of 
antiquity,  and  had  kindled  his  torch  at  the  altar 
of  Chatham  and  Burke,  Fox  and  Erskine.  His 
spontaneous  style,  not  formed  by  extensive  reading, 
and  able  to  dispense  with  a  critical  literary  knowl 
edge,  was  not  like  that  of  Burke  or  Gladstone,  but 
resembled  more  the  splendid  oratory  of  John  Bright, 
an  instrument  capable  of  sounding  all  the  depths  of 
passionate  emotion,  of  touching  the  deepest  chords' 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  85 

of  human  feeling,  and  of  lighting  up  the  sentiments 
of  freedom  with  unspeakable  pathos  and  splendor. 

But  if,  as  all  its  true  devotees  do,  we  ascribe  to 
eloquence  a  heavenly  origin,  and  give  it  that  office 
which  so  wins  our  hearts,  if  we  say  that  no  man  is 
ever  a  true  orator  without  being  the  spokesman  of 
some  great  cause,  that  God  touches  no  man's  lips 
with  that  celestial  fire  without  intending  thereby  to 
burn  up  some  giant  wrong,  how  nobly  does  Mr. 
Hale  fill  the  character!  Who,  in  this  sense,  among 
all  our  historic  Americans,  was  truer  to  his  divine 
appointment  than  he? 

Mr.  Hale  was  unique  in  this,  that  much  of 
his  effectiveness  as  a  speaker  was  due  to  his 
overflowing  wit  and  humor.  His  quick  percep 
tions,  genial  temperament,  and  acute  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  made  him  a  natural  humorist.  In  repar 
tee  he  was  incomparable,  and  his  apt  and  homely 
illustrative  stories  enlivened  the  United  States 
senate  for  sixteen  years.  An  ardent  admirer  of 
Mr.  Hale  most  happily  says, — "  The  jests  which 
lightened  his  public  addresses  were  not,  however, 
without  their  disadvantages.  They  sometimes  gave 
an  impression  of  levity  which  formed  no  part  of  his 
character.  As  there  is  in  art  an  ignoble  and  a 
noble  grotesque,  and  in  poetry  a  sardonic  and  a 
just  yet  not  malignant  satire,  so  there  is  in  oratory 
a  humor  which  degrades  and  another  which 
attracts  to  uplift  the  hearer.  This  was  the  humor 
of  our  orator ;  like  the  wit  of  Lincoln,  it  was  always 
serious  in  its  application,  an  instrument  for  noble 
appeal  or  impressive  illustration,  a  foil  for  grave 
discourse  or  earnest  invocation." 


86  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  recall  some  of  those 
sayings  of  his  which  so  illustrated  his  good  nat 
ure  and  broad  catholicity  of  spirit,  while  they 
drove  home  some  truth  as  no  other  means  could. 
For  instance,  he  compared  statesmen  who  were 
afraid  to  oppose  the  Mexican  "War  to  the  West 
ern  man  who  said  he  "  got  caught  by  opposing 
the  last  war,  and  he  didn't  mean  to  get  caught 
again;  he  intended  now  to  go  for  war,  pestilence, 
and  famine." 

Speaking  of  President  Folk's  back-down  in  the 
Oregon  treaty,  he  said,  "  The  president  exhibited  a 
Christian  meekness  in  the  full  scriptural  degree; 
but  he  did  n't  inherit  the  blessing  of  the  meek — he 
didn't  get  the  land." 

He  said, — "  As  to  whether  the  Missouri  com 
promise  had,  as  claimed,  given  peace  to  the  coun 
try,  he  did  n't  know  how  that  might  be,  but  he 
knew  that  it  gave  peace  to  the  politicians  who 
voted  for  it.  It  sent  them  down  to  their  polit 
ical  graves,  where  they  have  rested  in  peace  ever 
since.  It  settled  them,  if  it  did  n't  settle  the  conn- 
try." 

Senator  Westcott  called  him  to  order,  but  in 
formed  him  that  he  meant  nothing  personal.  Mr. 
Hale  said,  "  I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  the 
senator  for  his  explanation.  The  question  of  order 
has  been  raised  but  twice  since  I  have  had  the 
honor  of  a  seat  in  the  senate,  and  each  time  it  was 
raised  by  the  senator  from  Florida  upon  the  sena 
tor  from  Xew  Hampshire.  That  satisfies  me  that 
there  is  nothing  personal  about  the  matter." 

Mr.  Clemens,  in  a  violent  speech,  asserted  that 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  87 

the  Union  was  already  dissolved.  Mr.  Hale  good- 
humoredly  replied  that  it  would  be  very  comforting1 
to  many  timid  people  to  find  that  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  had  taken  place  and  they  did  n't  know 
it.  "  Once  in  my  life,"  said  he,  "  in  the  capacity  of 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  I  was  called  on  to  officiate  in 
uniting  a  couple  in  the  bonds  of  matrimony.  I 
asked  the  man  if  he  would  take  the  woman  to  be 
his  wedded  wife.  He  replied,  '  To  be  sure;  I  came 
here  to  do  that  very  thing.'  I  then  put  the  ques 
tion  to  the  woman, — whether  she  would  have  the 
man  for  her  husband,  and,  when  she  answered  in 
the  affirmative,  I  told  them  that  they  were  husband 
and  wife.  She  looked  up  with  apparent  astonish 
ment,  and  inquired,  'Is  that  all?'  'Yes,'  said  I, 
'  that  is  all.'  '  Well,'  said  she,  '  it  is  n't  such  a 
mighty  affair  as  I  expected  it  to  be,  after  all.'  If 
this  Union  is  already  dissolved,  it  has  produced 
less  commotion  in  the  act  than  I  expected." 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Calhoun's  complaint  that  the 
Missouri  compromise  had  disturbed  the  equilibrium 
of  the  country,  he  said  that  it  had  disturbed  no 
equilibrium  but  that  of  the  Northern  representa 
tives  who  voted  for  it;  that  it  threw  them  entirely 
off  their  equilibrium,  which  they  hadn't  regained 
yet,  and  never  would. 

General  Cass,  in  December,  1856,  hoped  God,  in 
His  mercy,  would  interpose  in  this  slavery  question 
before  it  was  too  late.  Mr.  Hale  interjected,  "He 
came  pretty  near  it  in  the  last  election,"  whereupon 
General  Cass  was  greatly  shocked  at  the  levity  of  so 
referring  to  the  Supreme  Being. 

Garrett  Davis  introduced  a  resolution  that 


88  THE   HALE  STATUE. 

negro,  or  person  whose  mother  or  grandmother  was 
a  negro,  should  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States." 
Mr.  Hale  said,  if  in  order,  he  would  like  to  amend 
by  putting  in  his  great-grandmother  also.  Of 
course  Mr.  Davis  was  highly  indignant  at  such 
buffoonery  on  a  sacred  subject. 

The  records  are  full  of  such  pleasantries  as 
these,  which  had  a  cutting  edge  of  truth,  but 
contributed  not  a  little  to  allay  the  irritation  and 
soften  the  asperities  of  debate.  But  Mr.  Hale 
never  indulged  in  personalities.  He  was  a  gen 
tleman  from  the  heart  out.  There  was  no  bit 
terness  in  his  jests.  He  threw  no  poisoned  arrows. 
He  struck  without  hatred  or  malignity,  and  his 
blows  left  no  ranklings  and  no  immedicable  wounds 
behind. 

"  His  wit  in  the  combat,  as  gentle  as  bright, 
Ne'er  carried  a  heart  stain  away  on  its  blade." 

Consequently,  when  he  retired  from  the  senate,  he 
had  as  warm  friends  south  as  north  of  the  line,  and 
among  them  was  one  who  had  learned  to  hold  him 
in  a  high  personal  esteem,  the  learned  and  eloquent 
Henry  S.  Foote,  of  Mississippi. 

But  little  remains  to  be  added  to  the  record  of 
Mr.  Hale's  public  life.  In  March,  1865,  he  was  ap 
pointed,  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  minister  to  Spain.  This 
was  a  service  suited  neither  to  his  temper,  his  taste, 
nor  his  capacity.  He  had  cultivated  no  drawing- 
room  arts ;  he  knew  nothing  of  the  assiduities  of 
ante-chambers ;  he  was  incapable  of  intrigue  or 
flattery ;  he  was  as  free  from  servility  as  from 
arrogance ;  he  had  not  merely  a  speculative  lik- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  89 

ing  for,  but  he  was  a  practical  exemplification  of, 
democratic  principles.  The  oratorical  tempera 
ment,  which  he  possessed  in  so  high  a  degree, 
harmonizes  not  with  the  cunning  or  even  the 
unsleeping  and  tireless  discretion  of  diplomacy, 
whose  methods  were  foreign  to  the  guileless  frank 
ness  of  that  noble  nature. 

In  the  heat  of  the  hour,  when  Mr.  Hale  broke 
from  allegiance  to  his  party,  and  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  slave,  he  was  the  object  of  ungenerous 
imputations  and  even  rancorous  abuse.  But  party 
feelings  seldom  survive  the  generation  they  control, 
i\nd  the  little  hatred  that  had  been  mingled  with 
these  accusations  had  been  outlived.  But, 

"  Be  thou  as  chaste  as  ice,  and  pure  as  snow, 
Thou  shalt  not  escape  calumny." 

In  his  new  position  abroad,  his  ignorance  of  the 
language  of  the  country,  and  the  amiability  of  his 
character,  involved  him  temporarily  in  the  toils  of 
an  adventurer.  He  had  what  some  one  has  called 
"  a  want  of  clear  sharp-sightedness  as  to  others," 
and  was  exposed  constantly  to  the  arts  of  schemers 
and  self-seekers.  The  mistakes  of  his  life,  which 
subjected  him  to  unfounded  aspersions,  all  arose 
out  of  his  ingenuous  and  generous  trust  in  others 
who  were  unworthy  of  his  confidence.  He  became 
for  a  brief  moment  the  victim  of  the  calumnies  of  an 
unworthy  subordinate,  who  had  compromised  him, 
as  he  had  attempted  the  ruin  of  his  predecessors  in 
the  same  way, — one  of  those  Jesuitical  reptiles  that 
infest  the  diplomatic  purlieus  of  Europe,  and  wrig 
gle  in  and  out  of  the  ante-chambers  of  royalty. 


90  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

For  a  tune,  as  Burke  said,  "  the  hunt  of  obloquy 
pursued  him  with  full  cry."  The  shafts  fell  really 
harmless  at  his  feet,  but  the  injustice  done  him  tem 
porarily  by  some  venomous  newspapers  embittered 
his  own  last  days,  and  clouds  the  memory  of  his 
friends. 

I  disdain  to  enter  upon  the  vindication  of  the  in 
tegrity  of  a  man  who  was  careless,  generous,  of 
simple  habits,  who  neglected  his  own  interests,  was 
indifferent  to  money,  and  who  with  abundant  oppor 
tunities  to  enrich  himself,  had  he  been  base  enough 
to  use  them,  neither  made  nor  spent,  nor  left  a  for 
tune, — the  man  who  was  content  to  tread  a  thorny 
road;  whose  life  was  one  of  plain  living  and  high 
thinking  for  himself  and  his  family ;  whose  face,  one 
of  the  noblest  I  have  ever  looked  upon,  was  itself  a 
refutation  of  calumny;  whose  heart  was  as  open  as 
the  day;  and  whose  integrity,  shining  like  a  star  in 
the  dark  night  of  our  country's  trial,  was  "the  im 
mediate  jewel  of  his  soul." 

But  I  rest  his  exoneration  not  there — not  upon 
such  moral  certainties  as  triumphantly  satisfy  his 
friends:  but  his  defence,  if  defence  were  needed,, 
may  be  rested  upon  legal  proofs  that  will  con 
vince  any  court  or  jury  of  his  absolute  innocence. 
I  have  examined  the  whole  case,  and  others  of 
more  authority  than  I,  and  I  aver  that  the  evi 
dence  against  John  P.  Hale  of  any  conscious  dere 
liction  of  duty,  anywhere,  or  at  any  time,  is  lighter 
and  more  unsubstantial  than  the  summer  zephyrs 
that  float  among  these  tree-tops  over  our  heads; 
and  that,  according  to  all  the  canons  of  evidence 
in  such  inquiries,  in  that  blameless  life,  public  and 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  91 

private,  there  was  nothing  in  the  face  of  which  he 
might  not  hold  his  head  erect  before  the  bar  of  God ! 

His  career  was  drawing  to  a  close.  He  remained 
abroad  five  years,  the  last  being  spent  with  his  fam 
ily  in  travel  on  the  continent,  and  in  the  vain  hope 
of  recruiting  his  shattered  energies.  His  health, 
never  good  since  the  ^National  Hotel  sickness  in 
1857,  of  which  he  was  a  victim,  had  now  become 
seriously  impaired,  and  he  came  home  in  1870  with 
a  broken  constitution.  He  was  welcomed  on  his 
return  with  formal  receptions  by  his  neighbors  at 
home  and  by  the  legislature,  of  which  a  conqueror 
might  have  been  proud.  He  lingered  with  us  for 
three  years  afterwards,  but  with  strength  gone  past 
recovery,  and  one  ill  following  another  made  his 
last  days  painful  ones.  As  one  of  his  eulogists 
grandly  said,  "  He  was  like  a  war-frigate  which  lies 
in  port  in  peaceful  times,  its  mighty  armament  and 
its  scarred  bulwarks  only  suggestive  of  stormy  days 
when  its  ports  were  up,  and  its  great  guns  dealt 
havoc  upon  the  foe." 

At  length,  on  the  19th  of  November,  1873,  the 
worn-out  gladiator  of  freedom  "  fell  on  sleep,"  and 
joined  the  great  company  of  his  co-workers  in  all 
ages — the  servant  of  God  passed  to  "  where  beyond 
these  voices  there  is  peace." 

I  have  spoken  mainly  of  the  public  life  of  Mr. 
Hale.  But  to  his  friends  there  seems  something 
lacking  in  the  sketch  of  a  man  so  much  loved  and 
admired,  without  analyzing  his  character  a  little 
more  closely,  and  drawing  a  portrait  of  somewhat 
warmer  coloring,  as  befits  his  noble  nature.  Some 
times  a  nearer  view  of  public  men  diminishes  the 


92  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

admiration  and  reverence  we  feel  at  a  distance. 
Not  so  with  Mr.  Hale.  His  dearest  place  was  in 
the  hearts  of  his  friends.  Those  who  knew  him  in 
his  domestic  privacy,  or  where  the  statesman  was 
sunk  in  the  social  intercourse  of  friendship,  most 
unreservedly  loved  him,  and  speak  in  fullest  admi 
ration  of  his  virtues  and  his  genius.  His  morals 
were  pure  without  austerity,  and  his  life  exem 
plary  by  its  observance  of  every  detail  of  duty, 
whether  it  involved  the  active  exertion  of  influ 
ence  for  good,  or  abstinence  from  everything  evil 
and  not  of  good  report.  He  was  exempt  from 
social  and  personal  vices.  In  1852  he  said  in  the 
senate,  "  I  have  not  tasted  a  drop  of  spirits  for 
twenty  years,"  and  he  never  afterwards  departed 
from  that  principle. 

In  religion  he  was  a  liberal.  He  was  averse  to 
external  ceremonies,  and  his  love  of  personal  inde 
pendence  made  him  jealous  of  every  kind  of  eccle- 
siasticism.  His  religion  was  a  matter  between  him 
self  and  his  God.  As  Burnet  said  of  Sydney,  "  He 
was  a  Christian,  but  a  Christian  in  his  own  way." 
Let  none  doubt  for  a  moment,  however,  the  essen 
tial  reverence  of  spirit  of  this  free-thinking  soul.  If 
ever  man  had  the  Unseen  but  Indwelling  Presence, 
if  ever  man  was  governed  by  those  great  invisible 
moral  sanctions  that  we  are  wont  to  call  the  laws  of 
God,  if  ever  man  had  the  faith  which  connected 
him  with  powers  above  him,  but  which  he  felt  work 
ing  through  him,  it  was  John  P.  Hale.  Sweetness, 
and  light,  and  love,  were  indeed  his  creed  and  his 
practice.  He  went  forth  to  the  duties  of  life  "  as 
ever  in  his  great  Taskmaster's  eye," — 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  93 

"  He  went  in  the  strength  of  dependence 

To  tread  where  his  Master  trod, 
To  gather  and  knit  together 

The  family  of  God  ; 
With  a  conscience  freed  from  burdens, 

And  a  heart  set  free  from  care, 
To  minister  to  every  one, 

Always  and  everywhere." 

Endowed  with  noble  gifts,  Mr.  Hale  had  what 
was  greater,  an  aggressively  noble  character.  He 
never  cringed  to  power.  He  never  sold  himself  for 
a  vulgar  or  temporary  applause.  He  was  never 
false  to  his  convictions ;  and  he  always  had  convic 
tions.  He  didn't  crawl  and  sneak  through  the 
world — he  never  lapped  himself  in  that  comfortable 
indifference  to  the  moral  law  which  is  the  devil's 
easy  chair  in  which  he  hypnotizes  the  human  con 
science  for  a  base  acquiescence  in  wrong  and 
iniquity. 

His  principles  were  rooted  in  his  character, 
and  had  an  organic  growth, — and  he  lived  as  if  he 
had  taken  holy  orders  in  their  service.  He  was 
essentially  a  reformer,  and  had  the  courage  to 
stand  alone,  which  is  the  first  requisite  of  leader 
ship  in  a  great  cause.  The  blandishments  of  power 
had  no  attractions,  and  no  terrors  for  him.  He 
might  have  sat  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne,  but 
disdainfully  rejected  the  temptation,  and  held  fast 
to  his  principles  and  his  integrity.  He  perilled  his 
political  career  to  resist  the  further  advance  of 
slavery.  His  courage  was  superb;  he  never 
quailed  before  the  face  of  man.  He  would  have 
been  equal  to  martyrdom,  and  would  have  gone  to 
the  block  saying  with  Sydney,  "  Grant  that  I  may 


94  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

die  glorifying  Thee  that  at  the  last  Thou  hast  per 
mitted  me  to  be  singled  out  as  a  witness  of  Thy 
truth,  and,  even  by  the  confession  of  my  opposers, 
for  that  old  cause  in  which  I  was  from  my  youth 
engaged." 

To  him  the  service  of  liberty  was  neither  prosaic 
nor  perfunctory.  It  gave  zest  to  his  life.  A  strain 
of  high  devotion  runs  like  a  nerve  of  fire  through 
all  his  public  efforts.  He  had  deeply  pondered 
upon  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Algernon  Sydney,  Pym  and 
Hampden,  Bradshaw  and  Henry  Martin,  and  the 
great  judges  who  had  stood  for  the  liberty  of  the 
subject  against  kingly  prerogative;  and  no  man 
was  more  deeply  imbued  with  free  principles — not 
the  loose  and  unsandalled  vagaries  of  the  French 
Revolution,  not  the  wild  passions  of  communism 
or  sans  cullottism,  but  the  fundamental  maxims 
which  had  found  expression  in  Magna  Charta,  the 
petition  of  right,  the  execution  of  Charles  Stuart, 
the  deposition  of  James,  and  the  bringing  over  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  the  trial  by  jury,  the  great  landmarks  and 
muniments  of  English  liberty,  guarded  and  regu 
lated  by  law.  These  were  his  ideals,  the  stern 
leaders  of  political  thought  and  action  in  the  days 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  antiquity. 

He  surpassed  all  the  men  I  have  known  in  love 
of  Mature  in  all  her  varying  scenes  and  moods. 
His  soul  was  open  to  every  divine  influence.  He 
was  the  friend  and  familiar  of  birds  and  flowers, 
mountains,  trees,  and  streams.  Never  was  there  a 
more  enraptured  lover  of  natural  scenery;  none 
who  from  the  hilltops  more  lovingly  drank  in  the 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  95 

clouds  and  the  landscapes,  the  song*  of  the  stream 
let,  the  kindling  star,  the  full  glory  of  the  noontide 
sun.  What  a  reverent  observer  and  worshipper  of 
nature  he  was!  His  eye  kindled  and  his  bosom 
swelled  as  he  beheld  the  pillars  of  the  forest,  the 
arches  of  the  sky,  the  gray  cliffs  and  shadowy 
cones  of  the  mountains,  and  listened  to  the  roll  of 
the  unresting-  and  unsearchable  sea.  Every  spot 
about  his  home  was  familiar  ground  to  him,  and 
his  friends,  one  by  one,  under  his  lead,  had  to  climb 
to  the  top  of  every  mountain  and  hill  within  its 
horizon.  He  loved  JS"ew  Hampshire,  and  every 
hour  he  was  absent  from  it  in  the  public  service  his 
heart  was  still  "  in  the  highlands."  His  familiarity 
with  natural,  local,  and  family  history  gave  an 
uncommon  charm  to  his  easy  conversational  pow 
ers,  and  made  his  companionship  delightful. 

How  can  those  who  lived  on  terms  of  intimacy 
with  Mr.  Hale  convey  to  others  any  adequate  im 
pression  of  the  attractive  human  traits  that  shone 
out  in  his  daily  intercourse?  Those  who  knew  him 
in  his  prime,  and  before-  sickness  had  rusted  the 
Damascus  blade,  dearly  remember  his  easy  acces 
sibility,  his  hospitable  mind,  his  apposite  stories, 
and  his  rich  fund  of  wit  and  anecdote.  He  was  not 
simply  loftily  interested  in  mankind,  but  his  heart 
went  out  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
concrete.  How  well  his  townsmen  knew  this,  and 
how  heartily  they  loved  and  admired  him  for  his 
unaffected  interest  in  their  personal  welfare,  their 
health,  their  children,  their  business,  their  pleasures, 
their  plans,  and  hopes,  and  fears.  In  early  life  his 
mind  had  been  promoted,  but  his  heart  never  rose 


96  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

above  the  ranks.     He  had  a  warm  sympathy  with 
humanity  in  all  its  phases — 

"  No  fetter  but  galled  his  wrist, 
No  wrong  that  was  not  his  own." 

He  was  a  faithful  friend,  and  assisted  those  he 
thought  deserving,  or  who  managed  to  ingratiate 
themselves  into  his  confidence  or  his  sympathies. 
!Not  infrequently  he  was  the  dupe  of  the  designing, 
but  such  mistakes  never  chilled  his  philanthropy, 
nor  closed  his  purse  or  his  heart  against  the  appeal 
of  distress,  whether  genuine  or  counterfeit. 

At  home,  as  at  Washington,  he  was  the  un- 
bought  counsel  and  defender  of  innocence,  and  no 
calculating  spirit  was  ever  the  mainspring  of  his 
action.  Milton  had  a  forecast  of  his  character 
when  he  wrote  of  Bradshaw, — "  If  the  cause  of 
the  oppressed  was  to  be  defended,  if  the  favor  or 
the  violence  of  the  great  was  to  be  withstood,  it 
was  impossible  in  that  case  to  find  an  advocate 
more  intrepid  or  more  eloquent,  whom  no  threats, 
110  terrors,  and  no  rewards  could  seduce  from  the 
plain  path  of  rectitude." 

Such  a  man  could  gain  but  little  of  this  world's 
possessions.  He  cared  less  for  what  he  should 
leave  than  for  what  he  should  take  with  him;  and 
he  held  unaltered  to  the  end  this  noble  conception 
of  the  use  and  duty  of  life,  its  consecration  to 
helpful  service  for  mankind,  and  for  the  poor,  and 
weak,  and  oppressed,  above  all  others. 

In  the  still  more  intimate  privacies  of  his  own 
home  he  was  the  endeared  centre  of  a  family  circle 
to  which  he  was  devotedly  attached  throughout  a 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  97 

stormy  and  exciting  political  career,  whose  stead 
fast  love  supported,  and  whose  tenderness  soothed 
him  to  the  last.  In  him  the  sentiment  of  home  and 
family  was  strong  and  beautiful.  How  pleasant  he 
was  in  that  circle!  All  admitted  there  felt  the 
sweetness  of  his  temper,  the  easy  gentleness  of  his 
manners,  and  the  charm  of  his  society.  He  told  a 
story  with  a  grace  snatched  beyond  the  reach  of 
art,  and  never  one  anywhere  that  would  sully  the 
tongue  or  the  imagination  of  a  maiden.  Who  that 
knew  him  there  can  ever  forget  his  perfect  natural 
ness,  his  frankness  and  sociability,  his  womanly 
tenderness,  his  delicacy  of  speech  and  conduct,  his 
playfulness,  his  absent-mindedness,  his  childlike 
simplicities  and  whimsical  oddities,  coming  out  in 
his  liking  for  old  ways  and  old  places,  and  for  this 
or  that  bizarre  article  of  food,  or  drink,  or  raiment? 
Beautifully  does  the  admirer  already  quoted  say, 
"  These  are  some  of  the  traits  which  made  us  often 
forget  in  the  man  and  the  friend  even  that  public 
record  of  patriotism  and  services  for  humanity 
which  places  him  first  in  the  proud  roll  of  the  dis 
tinguished  sons  of  ~New  Hampshire." 

Such  was  the  man  who  so  bore  his  great  com 
mission  in  his  look,  and  so  nobly  filled  the  ideal  of 
a  knight-errant  of  liberty  that  Marshall  P.  Wilder 
most  appropriately  introduced  him  at  the  ]New 
Hampshire  festival  in  Boston  in  1854  as  "the 
very  embodiment  and  incarnation  of  human  free 
dom," — the  man  in  whom  the  microscopic  power 
of  slander  could  find  no  spot  of  impurity,  and  who, 
God  be  thanked  for  such  a  statesman  in  the  nine 
teenth  century, — 


98  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

"  Through  all  the  tract  of  years 
Wore  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless  life." 

There  is  no  exaggeration  in  this  description  of 
Mr.  Hale.  I  know  it  is  the  voice  of  affection,  and 
of  a  domestic  grief  not  yet  entirely  assuaged. — 

"  Ars  utinam  mores  animumque  effingere  potest, 
Pulchrior  in  terris  mil  la  tabella  foret." 

It  would  be  unworthy  the  occasion,  the  theme, 
the  audience,  to  sketch  the  character  of  Mr.  Hale 
in  any  other  spirit  or  colors  than  those  of  truth  and 
discrimination;  and  yet,  in  delineating  him,  some 
thing  must  be  yielded  to  the  partiality  of  private 
friendship.  God  forbid  that  we  should  ever  fail 
to  dwell  on  the  virtues  of  our  friends,  and  throw 
the  mantle  of  charity  over  their  frailties.  Although 
none  could  know  him  truly  without  a  warm  admira 
tion  for  his  noble  character,  I  know  how  valueless  is 
mere  indiscriminate  panegyric.  "No  character  is 
flawless,  and  like  other  men  Mr.  Hale  had  his  limi 
tations.  Nor  do  I  mean  to  deny  the  proper  meed 
of  praise  to  the  other  great  actors  of  his  time, — 

"  Vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona 
Multi.'* 

Most  of  these  are  now  passed  away,  and  there  is 
no  reason  for  restraint,  but  we  may  speak  with 
posthumous  frankness.  Undeniably  the  historians 
of  the  period  have  not  ascribed  to  John  P.  Hale 
that  part  in  the  things  accomplished  in  his  time  to 
which  he  is  really  entitled.  "  On  Kansas  soil," 
says  ex-Gov.  Robinson  in  his  recent  book,  "  was 
gained  the  first  decisive  victory  against  the  Slave 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  99 

Power  of  this  nation."  Not  so.  More  than  ten  years 
before  the  Kansas  conflict,  the  first  strong  outwork 
of  slavery  was  carried  in  no  insignificant  battle,  and 
John  P.  Hale,  its  leader,  became  the  first  anti-slav 
ery  senator, — not  by  accident,  but  by  the  might  of 
his  own  invincible  arm  and  indomitable  heart,  in  a 
hand-to-hand  struggle  in  a  state  that  up  to  that 
gallant  fight  had  been  the  very  citadel  of  South 
ern  slavery.  Yet  this  fact  has  been  persistently 
ignored,  his  name  and  fame  have  been  treated  with 
a  studied  neglect,  and  those  who  came  in  at  a  later 
day,  some  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  have  suc 
ceeded  in  reaping  the  glory  and  the  reward  of  the 
movement  to  which  he  gave  the  first  impulse  and 
impetus.  I  distinctly  insist  that  he  it  was  who  won 
the  first  political  success,  and  who  has  a  valid  his 
torical  claim  to  pioneership  in  the  great  uprising 
which  terminated  slavery.  Doubtless  its  doom  was 
written  in  the  book  of  fate ;  doubtless  others  would 
have  come  and  set  the  ball  in  motion;  but  certainly 
he  did  come,  and  it  is  as  unreasonable  and  unjust  to 
deny  to  him  the  credit  as  to  deny  to  Luther  that  of 
the  Reformation,  or  to  Sam  Adams  and  Franklin 
that  of  the  Revolution. 

The  state,  among  whose  lofty  mountains  freedom 
loves  to  rear  her  mighty  children,  rescues  him 
to-day  from  this  neglect,  and  demands  for  him  the 
recognition  of  history  to  which  he  is  entitled,  as  one 
who  early  announced  and  clearly  formulated  the 
principles  upon  which  the  victory  was  finally  won. 
If  elsewhere  this  injustice  to  a  great  man  is  contin 
ued,  it  shall  not  be  without  protest  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  for  we  announce  by  a  solemn  public  act  that 


100  THE    HALE    STATUE. 

John  P.  Hale  should  stand  on  the  pages  of  history 
foremost  among  the  champions  of  liberty,  to  whom 
America  owes  her  emancipation  from  slavery. 
Neither  John  P.  Hale  nor  New  Hampshire  shall  be 
shut  out  hereafter  from  primacy  in  the  successful 
effort  to  rescue  the  republic  from  the  talons  of  this 
bird  of  prey. 

And  so,  with  all  the  ceremony  and  demonstra 
tion  of  respect  which  the  presence  of  the  official 
dignitaries  of  the  state,  its  culture  and  its  worth, 
can  lend  to  so  imposing  an  occasion — in  the  pres 
ence  also  of  official  representatives  of  the  two 
cities  where  Mr.  Hale  drew  his  first  and  his  latest 
breath,  where  he  was  born  and  where  he  had  his 
home  till  the  last,  and  in  whose  soil  he  was  finally 
laid  to  his  rest,  whose  representatives  are  most 
appropriately  here  and  commissioned  to  assist  in 
this  tribute  of  honor  and  of  justice  to  their  most 
eminent  son  and  most  beloved  citizen;  in  this  pres 
ence  and  in  that  of  some  of  the  veteran  coadjutors 
of  Mr.  Hale  who,  at  his  call,  buckled  on  their  armor 
and  fought  with  him  the  good  fight  for  liberty;  in 
the  honored  presence,  also,  of  some  of  the  renowned 
champions  of  freedom  in  the  United  States,  who  are 
here  to  give  the  dignity  and  authority  of  their 
names  to  this  observance — and  in  the  presence  of 
that  still  unbroken  family  circle  that  loved  him 
most  on  earth, — we  place  this  great  man  here  in 
the  goodly  company  of  Webster  and  Stark,  all 
men  of  distinct  types,  differing  as  the  stars  differ 
in  glory, — the  expounder  of  the  constitution,  the 
tribune  of  liberty,  and  the  hero  of  the  Revolution 
on  the  field  of  battle.  We  set  up  their  effigies 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  101 

here  in  token  of  our  reverence  for  their  separate 
and  conjoined  excellencies  of  character  and  achieve 
ment. 

"  It  is  at  the  tombs  of  great  men  that  succeeding 
generations  kindle  the  lamp  of  patriotism."  A 
nation  is  known  by  its  ideals,  and  by  such  memori 
als  as  this  we  realize  the  continuity  as  well  as  the 
immortality  of  human  excellence  in  the  universe. 
The  stream  of  humanity  is  unbroken.  There  is  no 
real  line  between  the  living'  and  the  dead. 

"  There  is 

One  great  society  alone  on  earth, 
The  noble  Living  and  the  noble  Dead." 

The  waves  of  human  life  come  and  go;  they 
dash  against  and  sweep  away  what  have  been 
esteemed  the  proudest  monuments  of  human  exer 
tion,  but  they  will  not  wash  away  the  works  that 
have  been  built  up  and  founded  upon  the  rock  of 
human  love  and  fidelity.  These  will  remain  when 
not  one  stone  shall  be  left  upon  another  of  the  tem 
ples  erected  to  merely  intellectual  or  military 
renown;  and  in  the  expansion  of  the  moral  horizon 
that  comes  to  successive  generations,  posterity 
shall  preserve  and  cherish  the  memory  of  every  true 
man  who  has  connected  his  name  with  some  step  in 
the  progress  of  the  race. 

When  the  passions  and  prejudices  aroused  by  the 
contest  against  slavery  shall  have  died  away;  when 
we  are  farther  away  from  the  calculating  spirit  of 
family,  and  local,  and  coterie  partiality  and  selfish 
ness;  when  the  final  story  of  the  anti-slavery 
struggle  in  this  country  shall  be  written,  among 


102  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

those  statesmen  who  wrought  for  liberty  and  pro 
gress  in  our  age  of  civic  and  military  valor,  and 
who  transmuted  their  own  God-given  energies  into 
current  coin  for  the  daily  use  of  humanity,  no  name 
will  shine  with  a  purer  lustre  on  the  historic  page 
than  that  of  John  P.  Hale. 

I  have  supposed,  and  do  suppose,  that  this  is  the 
true  glory  and  significance  of  his  career, — that  this 
is  the  emphasis  of  his  life  and  the  distinctive  mark 
he  made  upon  his  time, — that  in  which  the  affec 
tions  of  posterity  are  to  hold  and  garner  him. 
Without  this,  without  his  connection  with  the  great 
movement  for  emancipation  which  has  glorified  our 
age,  and  given  it  an  unapproachable  exaltation  in 
history,  he  would  be  entitled  to  public  honor  as  a 
good  case  lawyer,  an  eloquent  advocate,  a  useful 
senator,  a  faithful  son,  husband,  father,  and  a 
genial  and  fascinating  friend, — but  would  scarcely 
be  entitled  to  be  commemorated  by  a  statue  in  the 
public  grounds  of  his  state.  We  give  such  only 
to  great  services  to  humanity,  and  that  political 
freedom  to  which  all  nations,  though  by  indirect 
and  devious  routes,  are  tending:  and  such  we  give 
also,  only  when  time  has  tested,  and  set  its  seal 
upon  such  services.  Such  men  as  John  P.  Hale 
have  an  imperishable  hold  upon  the  moral  world, — 

"  Ever  their  phantoms  arise  before  us, 

Our  loftier  brothers,  but  one  in  blood  ; 
At  bed  and  table  they  lord  it  o'er  us, 

With  looks  of  beauty,  and  words  of  good." 

He  bore  the  test  of  service  for  liberty  at  a  time 
when  such  service  was  the  supreme,  the  inexorable 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  103 

demand  of  the  hour.  Tried  in  a  time  which  tested 
men's  integrity,  men's  courage,  men's  souls, — 
tried  as  by  fire  and  not  found  wanting, — he 
fitly  stands  here  as  the  New  Hampshire  rep 
resentative  par  excellence  of  the  spirit  of  the 
new  era  under  whose  scorching  breath  slav 
ery  withered  up  like  a  scroll,  and  went  down 
to  its  dishonored  grave.  The  moral  courage 
and  intrepidity  of  this  man  in  the  face  of  that 
public  opinion  whereby  the  slave  power  dominated 
and  subjected  the  North  was  the  forerunner,  the 
flaming  evangel,  of  the  great  uprising  of  conscience 
in  the  North,  and  the  harbinger  of  that  martial 
courage  which,  twenty  years  later,  on  a  thousand 
fields  of  battle,  was  to  eclipse  the  highest  achieve 
ments  of  chivalry  and  cast  romance  into  the  shade. 
This  spirit,  this  dauntless  courage  and  persistency, 
this  contempt  of  martyrdom,  ranks  him  with  the 
apostles  of  liberty  in  other  ages  who  occupy  the 
highest  niches  in  the  Pantheon  of  freedom. 

Mr.  Depew  says  we  shall  never  have  a  West 
minster  Abbey.  Perhaps  we  never  shall,  but  Amer 
ica  will  write  on  her  heart  the  names  of  her  cham 
pions  of  liberty,  her  heroes  in  council,  and  on  the 
field  of  battle. 

You  shall  find  in  what  I  say  of  this  great  man  no 
political  hints  or  innuendoes.  What  Mr.  Hale  did 
was  for  men  of  all  parties.  His  work  contributed  to 
the  common  stock  of  freedom  which  all  parties 
enjoy  and  recognize.  I  am  not  so  unworthy  of  the 
duty  laid  on  me  this  day  as  to  throw  into  the  scale 
of  our  current  politics  even  the  weight  of  an 
obscure  suggestion  in  any  phrase  I  may  employ  to 


104  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

express  my  admiration  for  Mr.  Hale's  truth  to 
human  freedom;  and  it  is  the  highest  tribute  our 
generation  can  pay  to  his  genius  and  labors,  to 
admit  that  in  political  philosophy,  in  recognition  of 
universal  human  brotherhood,  all  of  us  begin  where 
he  left  oif,  and  stand  on  the  vantage  ground  he 
gained  for  us. 

Mr.  Hale's  political  life  was  cast  in  a  grand  and 
fruitful  time.  He  lived  when  his  country  was  in 
full  health,  and  occupied  with  momentous  subjects. 
Others  there  have  been  whose  spirits,  like  his,  were 
in  tune  with  the  Divine  purpose;  whose  eyes,  like 
his,  from  the  mountain-top  of  vision  caught  the  ear 
liest  light  of  a  new  day,  but  who  have  only  seen  it 
from  Pisgah,  and  died  without  entering  the  Prom 
ised  Land.  But  he  was  permitted  to  see  the  com 
plete  triumph  of  his  principles,  and  the  political 
institutions  and  policy  of  his  country  recast  in  con 
formity  to  those  ideas  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
life.  He  lived  to  see  the  definite  extinction  of  slav 
ery  and  all  its  claims,  the  release  of  every  function 
in  the  government  from  its  control.  He  heard  the 
roar  of  hostile  guns  settling  the  great  debate  in 
which  he  had  borne  so  early  and  so  prominent  a 
part,  with  voices  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 
He  lived  to  hear,  also,  the  salvos  of  victory,  and  to 
see  the  land  covered  over  with  the  glory  of  freedom 
as  with  a  garment. 

One  other  security  safely  locks  up  his  fame. 
"  At  what  a  price,"  says  Landor,  "  would  many  a 
man  purchase  the  silence  of  futurity."  Surely  they 
who  need  that  silence  most  are  those  who  have 
once  had  their  faces  set  heavenward,  and  then  have 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  105 

faltered  and  fallen  out  by  the  way.  The  energy  and 
exaltation  of  soul,  the  uncalculating  enthusiasm  of 
humanity,  which  characterize  revolutions,  are  fol 
lowed  by  the  lowering  of  tone,  the  political  infidel 
ity,  the  eclipse  of  faith,  which  succeed  them  all  as 
the  night  the  day.  The  English  revolution  which 
dethroned  the  Stuarts  was  followed  by  the  Restor 
ation;  the  French  revolution,  by  Bonapartism  and 
a  new  regime  of  the  Bourbons;  Cromwell  and 
Hampden,  by  a  more  ignoble  Charles  and  the  suc 
cessors  of  Straff ord  and  Laud;  Mirabeau,  by  Tal 
leyrand  ;  the  overthrow  of  prerogative  by  the  long 
ing  for  thrones  and  the  government  of  favorites. 

So  we,  also,  after  the  gigantic  struggle  to  over 
throw  the  oppression  of  centuries,  live  in  a  time  of 
reaction.  Wealth  has  usurped  leadership;  plutoc 
racy,  and  not  ideas,  rules  the  hour;  and  the  dry 
bones  of  the  old  tyranny  crushed  thirty  years  ago 
begin  to  live.  The  appeal  to  be  true  to  the  ideas 
of  1860  falls  upon  deaf  ears.  We  would  rather 
sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  money;  we  rise  no 
higher  in  our  contentions  than  some  wrangle  about 
the  tariff,  or  the  puerility  and  rascality  of  determin 
ing  how  little  of  intrinsic  value  we  can  palm  off 
upon  the  world  for  a  dollar. 

It  was  Mr.  Hale's  high  fortune  to  escape  these 
dangers.  We  have  to  thank  God  that  there  were 
110  recantations  and  no  apostacies  in  his  later  days  ; 
that  he  was  never  overtaken  by  the  lassitude  of 
the  moral  reformer,  or  "  the  scepticism  that  treads 
upon  the  heels  of  revolutions ; "  nor  yielded  to  the 
apostacy  that  clouds  the  fame  and  the  memory  of 
some  who  had  done  valiant  service  for  the  right. 


106  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

And  when  the  great  struggle  which  had  opened 
and  closed  in  his  lifetime  was  finished, — when  the 
scene  upon  which  he  had  moved  was  closed,  how 
truly  could  he  say  that  he  had  not  only  fought  the 
good  fight,  but  had  kept  the  faith. 

It  is  altogether  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  statue 
of  such  a  man,  so  long  conspicuous  in  the  public 
service,  holding  the  highest  commission  the  state 
had  to  bestow  for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  ever 
upholding  her  honor  and  increasing  her  fame 
before  the  world,  should  be  erected  here,  to  stand, 
as  we  trust,  for  centuries  to  come,  in  the  grounds 
of  its  capitol.  We  thus  pay  homage  to  his 
memory  in  the  state  of  his  birth  and  his  abode; 
in  no  provincial  spirit,  however,  but  as  citizens  of  a 
larger  country,  in  whose  service  he  exerted  all  the 
powers  of  his  heart  and  brain. 

This  monumental  bronze,  its  pedestal  inscribed 
with  some  of  the  great  outlines  of  his  life  story, 
impressively  conveys  to  the  younger  generations, 
living  in  the  light  and  stirring  with  the  sublime 
thoughts  of  a  liberty  kindled  to  a  higher  glow  by 
his  torch,  the  assurance  that  from  his  lips  the 
accents  of  freedom  always  found  unfettered  utter 
ance,  that  we  have  numbered  his  labors  and  entered 
into  his  spirit,  and  that  more  than  they  can  pay  of 
gratitude  and  veneration  is  due  to  him  for  the 
achievements  and  lessons  of  his  high,  and  pure,  and 
strenuous  public  life. 

Aye  more,  we  proclaim  by  this  act  to-day  that 
he  deserves  to  stand  in  the  Valhalla  of  the  National 
Capitol  with  the  sages  and  worthies  whose  effigies 
adorn  its  rotunda,  because  he  was  the  hero  of  the 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  107 

noblest  of  our  revolutions, — that  peaceful  revolu 
tion  of  ideas  in  which  the  seed  was  sown  of  the  har 
vest  which  the  soldier's  sword  came  afterwards  to 
reap; — which  overturned  a  giant  wrong,  emancipa 
ted  the  master  no  less  than  the  slave,  and  gave  to 
America  that  place  in  the  political  order  to  which 
she  was  destined  by  Providence;  a  revolution 
unlike  those  that  have  re-organized  societies  else 
where,  in  that  in  ours  there  were  no  crimes  and  no 
excesses,  no  Anarchy,  no  Terror,  no  Military  Des 
potism,  no  profanations  and  no  blasphemies,  no 
massacres  and  no  proscriptions,  to  leave  their  in 
effaceable  stains  upon  the  face  of  human  progress. 
I  am  quite  aware  that  there  is  an  appointed  space 
prescribed  by  usage  and  good  taste,  by  the  cour 
tesy  of  the  press  and  the  patience  of  an  audience, 
within  which  what  is  said  here  should  be  circum 
scribed.  That  limit  was  long  since  passed,  and  I 
have  lingered  unduly  over  the  great  man  and  great 
actions  I  have  sought  to  commemorate.  With  all 
who  knew  him  in  life,  I  long  to-day 

"...  For  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." — 

and,  recalling  all  that  he  was  to  friends  and  coun 
try,  "  my  heart,  penetrated  with  the  remembrance 
of  the  man,  grows  liquid  as  I  speak,  and  I  could 
pour  it  out  like  water." 

And  then,  remembering  the  Protean  forms  in 
which  the  foes  of  liberty  are  ever  appearing,  and 
the  dangers  that  beset  the  republic  for  which  he 
lived  and  wrought,  the  vain  sorrow  and  the  selfish 


108  THE   HALE    STATUE. 

aspiration  are  alike  forgotten,  and  thinking  sadly 
of  some  crisis  of  Freedom  in  future  years,  and  he 
not  here  to  lead  on  her  legions  in  the  bewildering 
fight,  I  bid  hail  and  farewell  to  this  noble  son  of 
New  Hampshire,  one  of  the  chiefest  jewels  in  her 
crown  of  glory. 

"  Ah  !  if  in  coming  times 
Some  giant  evil  arise, 
And  Honor  falter  and  pale, 
His  were  a  name  to  conjure  with ! 
God  send  his  like  again!" 

When  Col.  Hall  had  nearly  concluded  his  oration, 
he  was  seized  with  faintness,  and  was  unable  to 
finish.  His  attack  was  not  serious,  however,  and 
after  he  was  able  to  leave  the  platform  the  exercises 
were  continued. 

THE  CHAIRMAN: — It  often  happens  that  contem 
poraries  and  posterity  are  so  tardy  in  the  apprecia 
tion  of  true  greatness,  that,  when  the  work  of  build 
ing  a  memorial  is  done,  much,  if  not  all,  that  was 
personal  to  the  honored  dead,  has  perished  from  the 
memories  of  men,  or  exists  only  as  a  half-forgotten 
tradition.  I  count  it  the  supreme  felicity  of  this  oc 
casion,  that  our  senior  senator,  in  his  admiration  of 
the  character  of  his  distinguished  predecessor,  rein 
forced  by  family  affection,  has  made  possible  the 
dedication  of  this  statue  while  so  many  illustrious 
co-laborers  with  Mr.  Hale  are  among  the  living; 
and  that  we  have  to-day,  as  the  guests  of  the  state, 
so  good  a  representation  of  the  survivors  of  the 
great  anti-slavery  conflict. 


CEREMONIES.  109 

If  memory  serves  me  aright,  forty-three  years 
ago  one  of  the  northern  districts  of  Pennsylvania 
— sometimes  called  the  Wilmot  Proviso  district — 
elected  a  young  man  to  congress,  who  took  his 
seat,  the  next  year,  the  youngest  member  of  that 
body.  July  4,  1861,  he  was  elected  speaker.  Of 
the  manner  in  which  he  bore  himself  in  that  high 
office,  during  those  troublesome  times,  we  are  not 
ignorant. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  introduce,  at  this  time, 
the  young  man  of  1850,  and  the  speaker  of  the  na 
tional  house  of  representatives  in  the  37th  con 
gress,  Hon.  Galusha  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania. 

HON.  GALUSHA   A.    GROW'S    ADDRESS. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS: — At 
midnight  closing  the  twenty-sixth  day  of  May,  1854, 
the  boom  of  cannon  in  front  of  the  nation's  Capitol, 
echoes  along  the  hills  that  skirt  the  Potomac.  It 
is  the  jubilation  of  the  champion  of  American  sla 
very  on  the  final  vote  in  congress  repealing  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  the  signature  to  the  act  by  a 
subservient  president  being  already  assured.  For 
the  first  time  a  restriction  on  the  extension  of  the 
institutions  of  human  bondage  on  the  American 
continent  is  blotted  from  the  statute  book.  With 
the  contemplated  repeal  of  one  other  restriction — 
that  prohibiting  the  foreign  slave  trade — and  the 
final  triumph  of  the  devotees  of  slavery  in  the  leg 
islation  of  the  country  would  have  been  complete. 

Ten  years  scarcely  pass  away,  and  these  same 
Potomac  hills  re-echo  the  boom  of  cannon  welcom- 


110  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ing  the  return  of  the  battle-scarred  veterans  from 
the  victorious  fields  of  a  Union  saved  and  a  coun 
try  free.  The  irrepressible  conflict  of  a  hundred 
years  is  ended  forever. 

It  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  plans  of  Divine  Prov 
idence  that  every  marked  advance  in  civilization 
must  begin  in  mighty  convulsions.  The  moral  law 
was  first  proclaimed  in  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  and 
the  earthly  mission  of  the  Saviour  of  mankind  closed 
amidst  the  rending  of  mountains  and  the  throes  of 
the  earthquake.  The  Goddess  of  Liberty  herself  was 
born  in  the  shock  of  battle,  and  amid  its  carnage 
has  carved  out  some  of  her  grandest  victories,  while 
over  its  crimson  fields  the  race  marches  on  to  higher 
and  nobler  destinies.  As  the  lightnings  of  heaven 
rend  and  destroy  only  to  purify  and  reinvigorate, 
so  Freedom's  cannon  furrows  the  fields  of  decaying 
empires,  and  seeds  them  anew  with  human  gore; 
from  which  springs  a  more  vigorous  race,  to  cher 
ish  the  hopes  and  guard  the  rights  of  mankind. 

In  the  world's  decisive  battles,  in  the  onward 
progress  of  the  race  to  a  higher  and  better  civiliza 
tion,  great  battalions  have  always  marched  in  the 
rear  of  great  ideas.  The  armies  that  saved  the 
American  Union  marched  under  the  inspiration,  the 
same  as  if  it  had  been  inscribed  upon  their  banners, 
of  that  sentiment  of  New  Hampshire's  greatest  sou, 
though  adopted  and  crowned  with  lasting  honors  by 
Massachusetts,  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  for 
ever,  one  and  inseparable." 

At  a  time  when  Slavery  in  the  plenitude  of  its 
power,  dominated  every  branch  of  the  government, 
dictated  its  legislation,  and  made  and  unmade  pres- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  Ill 

idents,  and,  by  social  and  business  ostracism,  coupled 
not  unfrequently  with  mob  violence,  was  attempting 
to  stifle  free  speech  and  trammel  the  freedom  of  the 
press,  like  John  the  Baptist  crying  in  the  wilder 
ness  John  P.  Hale  stood  solitary  and  alone  in  the 
senate  of  the  United  States,  protesting  against  such 
domination,  and,  prophet-like,  predicting  that  a  bet 
ter  day  would  surely  come,  if  its  dawn  was  not  al 
ready  near  at  hand.  But,  unlike  the  prophets  of 
old,  he  was  not  without  honor  in  his  own  country 
and  in  the  times  in  which  he  lived.  He  led  the  for 
lorn  hope  of  a  revived  love  of  liberty,  which  in  the 
swift-coming  future  was  to  scale  the  ragged  battle 
ments  of  human  bondage  and  bid  the  oppressed  go 
free.  Thenceforth  the  inalienable  rights  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  are  to  be  the  heritage 
of  every  child  born  on  American  soil. 

His  private  worth,  his  public  acts,  and  his  great 
services  to  his  country,  as  a  faithful  tribune  of  the 
people  in  the  forum  of  public  opinion,  have  been 
portrayed  so  faithfully  and  well  by  the  speakers  who 
have  preceded  me,  that  no  other  words  of  praise  or 
eulogy  are  needed.  The  real  hero  is  found  not 
alone  in  the  night  watch  and  forlorn  hope  of  the 
battlefield,  but  in  the  martyrdom  of  a  perverse,  op 
pressive  public  opinion,  and  the  execution  of  unjust 
and  tyrannical  laws. 

Men  who  breathe  their  spirit  into  the  institutions 
of  their  country  or  stamp  their  characters  upon  the 
pillars  of  the  age  can  never  die.  Statues  and  mon 
uments  are  erected  to  their  memory.  It  is  well. 
For  they  stand  through  the  ages,  visible  objects  in 
citing  the  living  to  emulate  the  virtues  and  the  pat- 


112  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

riotic  devotion  of  the  dead.  But  the  actors  in  the 
early  or  later  scenes  of  that  mighty  national  drama 
which  closed  at  Appomattox,  whether  in  council  or 
on  the  field,  need  no  monuments  of  stone  or  tablets 
of  brass  to  perpetuate  their  memory.  They  live  in 
the  affections  of  the  present,  and  will  live  in  the 
gratitude  of  the  future.  Their  tombs  are  the 
hearts  of  the  great  and  the  good;  their  monuments, 
the  granite  hills  of  a  nation  rejoicing  in  freedom. 

THE  CHAIRMAN: — We  have  the  feeling,  and  in  a 
few  instances  it  has  been  expressed,  that  Massachu 
setts  has  received  from  New  Hampshire  large  addi 
tions  to  its  business  and  professional  resources,  and 
that  we  have  the  right  to  call  upon  our  sister  com 
monwealth  whenever  assistance  is  needed.  We 
should  not  feel  that  this  statue  was  properly  dedi 
cated  without  a  word  from  Massachusetts.  Gov 
ernor  Boutwell,  whose  life-work  has  been  a  part  of 
the  history  of  that  state  for  fifty  years,  has  kindly 
consented  to  make  a  brief  address,  and  I  gladly 
announce  him  as  the  next  speaker. 

HON.  GEORGE  S.  BOUTWELL's  ADDRESS. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — 
If  I  do  not  err  in  my  estimate  of  Mr.  Hale's  ser 
vices,  his  claim  to  the  honors  that  are  tendered  to 
his  name  and  memory  by  his  native  state  and  by  a 
public  larger  than  any  state,  rests  upon  a  most  sub 
stantial  foundation.  In  early  manhood  he  was 
allied  to  a  political  party  that  was  dominant  in  the 
state, — a  party  that  for  more  than  a  generation  had 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  113 

dictated  the  policy  of  the  country.  Without  delay, 
by  his  talents,  learning,  and  wisdom  in  affairs,  he 
was  advanced  to  places  of  honor,  power,  and  trust, 
and  made  secure  in  a  public  confidence  not  limited 
by  party  lines. 

When,  in  his  thirty-eighth  year,  Mr.  Hale  took 
his  seat  in  the  house  of  representatives,  there 
were  but  few,  if  any,  whose  abilities  were  superior, 
and  none,  probably,  whose  prospects  in  a  party- 
political  aspect  were  better.  Before  his  first  term 
in  congress  was  ended  he  was  forced  to  accept  or 
to  confront  the  policy  of  slavery-extension,  to  which 
the  Democratic  party  was  then  about  to  commit 
itself.  Without  hesitation,  and  with  the  fervid 
energy  of  youth,  he  denounced  the  project  as  a 
crime,  in  which  not  one  redeeming  feature  could  be 
found.  Thenceforward,  and  especially  during  the 
next  two  years,  he  gave  himself  without  reserve  to 
a  contest  in  New  Hampshire  which  attracted  the 
attention  and  involved  the  fortunes  of  the  whole 
country, — a  contest,  which,  as  we  approach  the 
close  of  a  half  century,  is  not  yet  ended.  Dis 
regarding  these  incitements  to  ambition,  putting 
aside  these  prospects  of  promotion,  Mr.  Hale  made 
war  upon  the  slave-power, — not  yet  upon  slavery 
itself, — in  one  of  the  strongholds  of  that  power,  as 
New  Hampshire  then  was. 

The  generation  to  which  Mr.  Hale  belonged  did 
not  comprehend  that  power,  and  to  this  generation 
all  adequate  statements  must  appear  to  be  exagger 
ations.  In  1839,  Mr.  Clay  valued  the  slaves  of  the 
country  at  twelve  hundred  million  dollars,  and  the 
auxiliary  property  in  lands  and  debts  whose  value 


114  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

rested  upon  slave  labor  could  not  have  been  less 
than  twelve  hundred  million  more.  Thus  there 
was  concentrated  in  defence  of  the  institution  a  sum 
equal  to  a  third  or  a  quarter  assuredly  of  the  total 
property  of  the  country.  This  enormous  invest 
ment  was  buttressed  by  the  constitution,  sustained 
by  a  large  public  sentiment  in  which  there  lingered 
the  tradition  only  that  slavery  was  a  local  institu 
tion.  That  tradition  found  but  a  feeble  expression 
in  the  press,  in  the  bar,  in  the  courts,  in  the  col 
leges,  in  the  churches,  and  finally  in  the  political 
parties  into  which  the  country  was  divided. 

Fortunately  for  Mr.  Hale  the  contest  which  he 
carried  on  in  1845,  '46,  and  '47  was  in  a  state  which 
had  no  pecuniary  interest  in  the  institution  of  slav 
ery-extension  upon  moral  and  political  grounds, 
and  so  dealing  with  it  Mr.  Hale  achieved  the  first 
of  the  long  line  of  victories  which  have  marked  the 
steps  by  which  the  foulest  of  tyrannies  has  been 
destroyed,  not  in  America  only,  but  in  Portugal, 
Spain,  and  Brazil;  and  thus  has  humanity  been 
inspired  with  the  hope  that  the  time  is  not  distant 
when  slavery  shall  disappear  even  from  the  savage 
and  semi-civilized  races  of  men. 

So  much  has  been  gained,  and  what  has  been 
gained  cannot  be  lost  except  in  a  general  wreck  of 
human  institutions;  but  the  contest  on  which  Mr. 
Hale  entered  in  1845  is  not  ended.  Indeed,  a  half 
century  is  a  brief  period  for  the  extirpation  of 
a  crime  and  the  influence  of  a  crime  that  had 
degraded  millions  of  men  into  chattels;  a  crime 
that  had  been  embalmed  in  the  constitution  by  the 
patriot  founders  of  the  Republic;  a  crime  that  was 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  115 

authorized  and  justified,  or  at  least,  tolerated  by 
the  Scriptures,  as  was  proclaimed  by  more  than 
half  the  teachers  in  the  pulpits  and  believed  by 
more  than  half  the  occupants  of  the  pews ;  a  crime 
that  controlled  a  product  that  was  essential  to  trade 
at  home  and  to  commerce  abroad;  a  crime  that 
thus  had  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  virtue  in 
the  estimation  of  a  vast  majority  of  the  people  in 
fifteen  states  of  the  Union. 

It  was  against  this  formidable  array  of  authority 
and  power  that  Mr.  Hale  and  his  associates  made 
war.  An  unequal  contest  in  the  beginning,  to  be 
transformed  into  victory  at  the  end;  but  the  end  is 
not  yet  reached.  The  tone  of  the  press,  the  voice 
of  the  pulpit,  the  opinions  of  the  people  have  been 
changed,  and  all  for  justice  and  right.  The  con 
stitution  of  the  country  has  been  remodeled,  slavery 
has  disappeared,  citizenship  has  been  made  national 
and  universal,  and  the  equality  of  men  in  the  states 
has  been  guaranteed  as  the  basis  of  the  equality  of 
states  in  the  Union. 

To  these  results  Mr.  Hale  contributed  most 
largely  through  a  period  of  twenty  years  of  event 
ful  public  service,  and  thus  we  justify  his  claim  to 
the  honors  that  are  tendered  to  his  name  and  mem 
ory  by  the  authorities  and  citizens  of  his  native 
state. 

The  four  million  of  emancipated  slaves  have 
increased  to  seven  million  citizens,  a  ninth  part  of 
the  population  of  the  Republic,  and  of  these,  more 
than  two  thirds  are  denied  the  rights  of  citizens  in 
the  states  where  they  reside.  This  is  the  remain 
ing  crime  of  slavery — our  inheritance  from  that 


116  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

institution — a  crime  that  is  justified  in  the  old 
slave  states  and  tolerated  and  excused  by  influen 
tial  men  and  bodies  of  men  in  all  parts  of  the  coun 
try. 

If  Mr.  Hale  and  his  associates  are  worthy  of 
monuments  and  statues,  then  it  is  the  duty  of  this 
generation  to  consummate  the  work  which  was  by 
them  so  well  begun. 

THE  CHAIRMAN: — There  is  upon  this  platform  a 
distinguished  citizen  of  the  United  States,  who 
made  his  first  visit  to  ]N~ew  Hampshire  half  a  cent 
ury  ago.  He  did  not  at  that  time  receive  the 
welcome  due  to  his  manhood  at  the  .hands  of  our 
people  generally.  To-day  he  comes  as  the  guest 
of  the  state,  which  now  makes  full  and  glad  atone 
ment  for  its  earlier  shortcomings.  Mr.  Douglass, 
may  we  hear  from  you? 

FREDERICK   DOUGLASS'S   ADDRESS. 

MR  CHAIRMAN: — I  have  made  no  preparation 
to  address  this  audience,  and  had  hoped  that  the 
managers  of  this  occasion  would  allow  me  to  sit 
here  and  only  give  color  to  the  occasion.  (Laugh 
ter.)  I  hardly  ought  to  be  here  to-day  on  account 
of  my  health.  I  am  very  feeble,  and  am  suffering 
from  an  attack  which  would  excuse  me  almost  for 
my  absence  from  this  place  ;  but  I  desired  to  be 
here,  and  I  may  say  that  I  never  in  all  my  life 
desired  more  fervently  to  make  a  speech  than  on 
this  occasion,  and  never  felt  myself  less  able  to  do 
so  than  now. 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  117 

I  want,  however,  to  say  that,  in  1845,  it  was 
my  pleasure  and  my  privilege  to  look  upon  the 
manly  form  of  John  P.  Hale,  and  thereafter  to 
meet  him  often,  and  to  hear  his  melodious  voice 
and  listen  to  the  thrilling-  sentiments  he  was  accus 
tomed  to  utter  in  connection  with  the  great  cause 
of  liberty.  I  travelled  with  him  some  in  central 
'New  York,  in  company  with  him  who  was  after 
wards  Chief-Justice  Chase,  and  heard  them  both 
speak.  I  saw  them  in  public  and  saw  them  in 
private,  and  one  thing,  which  has  not  been  men 
tioned  in  the  elaborate,  eloquent,  and  able  discourse 
that  we  have  heard,  struck  me  in  regard  to  John 
P.  Hale.  It  was  this:  Wherever  he  stopped,  and 
there  were  any  little  children  around,  little  girls 
and  boys,  somehow  or  other  they  were  irresistibly 
attracted  to  John  P.  Hale.  (Applause.)  They 
would  lean  on  his  knees,  play  about  him  ;  and  I 
thought  that  was  a  good  sign,  a  very  striking  evi 
dence  of  the  greatness  of  the  man.  It  reminded 
me  of  the  saying  of  the  Saviour,  "  Suffer  little  chil 
dren  to  come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  Heaven."  And  if  you  ever  see  a  man  in  your 
travels  anywhere  in  this  world  from  whom  children 
shrink,  there  is  something  wrong  about  that  man. 
(Laughter.)  I  was  going  to  say  that  if  you  see  a 
man  from  Avhom  the  ladies  shrink,  there  is  some 
thing  wrong  about  him.  (Laughter.) 

I  wanted  to  be  here  because  I  am  one  of  the  vast 
multitude  of  emancipated  ones  whom  John  P.  Hale 
devoted  his  heart  and  his  transcendent  abilities  to 
liberate.  I  wanted  to  be  here  to  represent  those 
millions;  to  show  you  that  one,  at  least,  of  those 


118  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

millions  appreciates  the  greatness,  the  grandeur, 
and  the  devotion  and  the  courage  of  John  P.  Hale. 
(Applause.) 

We,  in  this  day,  can  hardly  understand  the  meas 
ure  of  the  greatness  of  that  man's  courage,  the 
greatness  of  the  sacrifice  he  made,  the  greatness 
of  his  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  great  prin 
ciples.  Why,  he  was  preceded  in  Washington  by 
John  Quincy  Adams,  a  man  venerable  for  his 
learning  in  the  laws,  skilled  in  legislation,  an 
acknowledged  statesman;  and  yet  against  him 
came  a  torrent  of  abuse  and  persecution  that  well 
nigh  drove  him  from  the  house  of  representatives. 
Happily  for  him,  though  not  remarkable  for  his 
eloquence  in  his  younger  days,  he  became  the  "  old 
man  eloquent,"  and  could  defend  himself.  John 
Marshall,  who  brought  in  the  resolution  for  his 
expulsion,  remarked  that  Mr.  Adams  took  longer 
to  defend  himself  than  it  took  God  Almighty  to 
make  the  world,  for  he  spoke  two  weeks.  Finally 
he  overcame  the  opposition  and  was  allowed  to 
stand  his  ground ;  and  when  he  came  home  to  old 
Massachusetts,  our  poet  was  enabled  to  say  to 
him, — 

Not  from  the  bloody  field, 

Borne  on  his  battered  shield, 

By  foe  o'ercome ; 

But  from  a  sterner  fight 

In  the  defence  of  right, 

Clothed  in  a  conqueror's  might, 

We  hail  him  home. 

Where  slavery's  minions  cower 
Before  their  servile  power, 
He  bore  their  ban  ; 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  119 

And,  like  an  aged  oak 
That  braved  the  lightning's  stroke, 
When  thunders  round  it  broke, 
Stood  up  a  man. 

Now,  I  say,  we  have  no  scales  in  which  to  weigh 
the  courage  and  the  manliness  of  John  P.  Hale; 
we  have  no  means  of  measuring  it — we  of  the 
present  generation,  I  mean, — but  if  you  go  back  to 
the  time  when  the  honest  farmers  of  the  state  of 
New  Hampshire  thought  themselves  justified  in 
yoking  up  ninety  oxen  to  drag  away  a  negro 
school-house,  you  will  see  that  John  P.  Hale  had 
something  to  meet  in  the  state  of  New  Hampshire 
as  well  as  in  the  state  of  South  Carolina.  (Ap 
plause.) 

I  remember  the  time  that  I  came  here,  fifty  years 
ago.  I  was  a  slave,  even  here  in  New  Hampshire. 
Indeed,  in  all  parts  of  the  country  I  was  a  slave. 
The  country  was  a  slave  hunting-ground,  all  over 
it.  A  slave  could  be  started  at  Ticonderoga,  and 
chased  down  to  Bunker  Hill,  and  he  might  ascend 
that  granite  shaft,  with  its  capstone  in  the  clouds, 
and  plead  in  the  name  of  the  blood  that  was  spat 
tered  at  its  base  to  be  allowed  liberty,  and  even 
there  he  could  be  hunted,  chained,  and  dragged 
back  to  slavery.  Not  only  the  South,  but  the 
North,  was  in  a  state  to  make  it  dangerous  for  any 
man  to  take  the  side  of  the  slave.  There  was  no 
valley  so  deep,  no  mountain  so  high,  no  glen  so 
secluded,  no  spot  so  sacred  to  liberty,  in  any  part 
of  this  broad  land,  whereon  I  could  place  my  foot 
and  say,  with  safety,  I  am  now  secure  from  the 
slave  hunters. 


120  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

In  that  day,  too,  the  American  eagle  refused  to 
give  me  shelter,  and  there  was  no  room  under  the 
outspread  wings  of  the  eagle  fdr  the  head  of  Fred 
erick  Douglass ;  but,  besides,  the  American  eagle 
laid  bad  eggs  at  that  time.  (Laughter.)  It  was 
hardly  safe  for  us  to  open  our  mouths  in  the  inter 
est  of  liberty  in  those  days  ;  and  the  thing  that 
pleases  me  to-day  is  the  vast  and  wonderful  change 
that  has  taken  place.  Yes,  this  audience  is  full 
compensation,  full  compensation  for  the  slender 
audience  that  met  me  in  the  old  town  hall,  with  its 
side  benches — I  can  see  it  now,  but  it  is  gone. 
This  was  not  such  a  city  then  as  it  is  now. 

A  VOICE. — What  about  suffrage  down  South? 

ME.  DOUGLASS. — I  was  going  to  say  something 
about  that.  As  I  heard  Governor  Boutwell  say 
on  the  floor  of  congress,  when  he  was  going  on 
with  a  volley  of  eloquence,  as  he  could  then,  some 
one  interrupted  him,  and  said,  "How  about  this?"' 
and  he  replied,  Well,  "  I  am  coming  to  that." 
(Laughter.)  I  am  coming  to  that. 

I  have  often  said  that  the  want  of  congress  now, 
or  want  of  the  senate,  is  another  John  P.  Hale. 
(Applause.)  We  have  a  representative  who  has 
inherited  his  principles,  and  has  the  nerve  to  stand 
up  on  the  floor  of  the  senate  and  utter  his  convic 
tions  in  regard  to  a  free  ballot  and  an  honest  count, 
and  that  is  your  senator,  Hon.  William  E.  Chand 
ler.  (Applause.)  He  is  no  coward.  But,  great 
as  he  is,  he  will  admit  that  John  P.  Hale  was  a  lit 
tle  taller  man.  (  Laughter.) 

Mr.  Hale  entered  the  senate  under  circumstances 
that  would  have  taxed  the  courage  of  a  Napoleon 


UNVEILING   EXERCISES.  121 

— aye,  more  than  that,  for  Napoleon  did  not  have 
the  moral  courage  to  begin  with  John  P.  Hale.  It 
was  something  for  a  man  to  come  from  New 
Hampshire  and  stand  in  the  presence  of  Henry 
Clay,  of  John  C.  Calhoim,  of  Lewis  Cass,  and  of 
Daniel  Webster,  their  bright  eyes  opening  upon 
him,  and  resenting  his  interposition — I  say,  it  was 
something  to  stand  up  there  in  such  presence  and 
be  a  man,  as  was  John  P.  Hale.  (Applause.) 

Mr.  Clay  tried  to  down  him  in  his  very  suave 
and  eloquent  manner.  It  so  happened  that,  during 
the  compromise  measures,  Mr.  Hale  in  several  in 
stances  followed  Mr.  Clay,  who  made  many  speeches 
on  that  compromise  measure.  When  Mr.  Clay 
spoke,  the  senate  chambers  were  usually  full.  Mr. 
Clay  came  in  one  morning,  and  after  being  followed 
by  Mr.  Hale,  said,  "  It  will  be  noticed  by  the  sen 
ators  that  on  almost  every  occasion  when  it  is  my 
privilege  to  address  the  senate  of  the  United 
States,  I  am  followed  by  the  senator  from  ~New 
Hampshire.  If  that  is  to  be  taken  as  a  desire  on 
his  part  to  measure  arms  with  me  in  oratory,  I  con 
cede  the  palm."  Mr.  Hale,  sitting  in  his  seat, 
said,  "  That  accounts  for  the  calumny."  Mr.  Clay 
sang  out,  "  What  calumny,  sir?  "  in  his  imperious 
way.  Mr.  Hale  says,  "  I  answer  no  questions  put 
to  me  in  that  tone."  He  was  able  to  meet  any 
occasion.  His  aptness  of  reply  was  wonderful,  and 
his  illustrations  were  striking. 

I  did  not  intend  to  speak  even  this  long.  I 
never  make  long  speeches.  This  occasion  requires 
a  short  speech,  and  I  never  made  a  short  speech 
with  which  I  was  satisfied,  and  I  never  made  a 


122  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

long  one  with  which  anybody  else  was  satisfied. 
(Laughter.)  This  good  man  whom  you  have 
taken  away  [Col.  Hall]  has  stolen  much  of  my 
thunder  that  I  thought  I  would  use  if  I  spoke  at 
all.  He  has  gone  before  me  and  has  taken  the 
bread  of  life  out  of  my  mouth. 

I  can  only  say  to  yon,  my  friends,  that  I  am 
greatly  impressed  with  the  vast  and  wonderful 
change  that  has  taken  place  in  the  condition  of  my 
people.  It  seems  to  me  that  I  am  living  in  a  new 
world;  that  I  am  seeing  more  than  John  saw  in 
his  apocalyptic  vision,  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth !  What  a  transition  from  the  past  to  the 
present  !  For  we  have  heard  of  nations  being 
born  in  a  day;  but  this  nation  has  certainly  been 
turned  upside  down  in  a  very  short  time. 

JSTow  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  things  at  the 
South,  I  am  much  exercised  just  now.  I  do  not 
know  what  it  is  coming  to.  At  this  time  there  is 
a  tide  of  lawlessness  and  violence  sweeping  over 
the  South  that  is  almost  disheartening,  and  until 
we  infuse  a  little  more  backbone  into  the  Repub 
lican  party,  and  that  party  will  bring  to  the  front 
the  question  of  right,  the  question  of  justice,  the 
question  of  the  constitution,  we  shall  see  this  tide 
of  violence  sweep  on.  How  wonderful  it  is  that 
these  men,  who  a  few  years  ago  were  on  the  battle 
field  with  arms  in  their  hands  and  bullets  in  their 
pockets,  and  with  broad  blades  and  bloody  hands 
seeking  to  dismember  this  country,  that  they  can 
stand  up  now  on  the  floor  of  the  senate  of  the 
United  States  and  tell  the  North,  tell  the  world, 
that  they  mean  to  violate  the  constitution  so  far  as 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  123 

preventing  the  negro  voting.  They  dare  to  tell  us 
so.  Oh,  if  they  should  speak  this  in  the  presence 
of  that  man  there,  he  would  skin  them  alive 
(laughter  and  cries  of  "  Good  ")  or  drive  them  to 
their  homes.  And  it  is  coming,  it  is  coming.  I 
think  our  convention  at  Minneapolis — I  hope  no 
Democrat  will  take  offence — our  Republican  con 
vention  there  was  a  little  more  determined  on  this 
question  than  heretofore.  But  I  have  to  say  in 
regard  to  the  Republican  party  that  it  is  a  great 
mistake  for  that  party  to  dwarf  and  belittle  the 
moral  side  of  their  character  by  presenting  to  us 
on  all  occasions  only  the  one  theme,  tariff,  tariff, 
tariff.  These  things  we  ought  to  have  done,  and 
not  left  the  other  undone.  I  think  that  the  nation 
has  a  soul,  or  ought  to  have  a  soul,  and  I  can  say 
to  it,  "What  of  it  ?  "What  if  you  gain  the  whole 
world  for  your  market  and  lose  your  own  soul  ? " 
(Applause.)  The  soul  of  a  nation  is  its  honor,  and 
you  bound  yourselves  when  you  gave  the  negro 
his  liberty,  when  you  gave  him  the  right  to  vote, 
you  pledged  yourselves  that  you  would  see  to  it 
that  that  right  would  be  protected.  (Applause.) 
What  a  humiliating  spectacle  do  we  present,  if  it 
can  be  said  that  we  can  defend  the  liberty  of  the 
American  citizen  in  Chili,  that  you  can  defend 
him  in  any  foreign  country,  but  you  cannot  defend 
his  liberty  at  home.  I  do  not  believe  that  to  be 
the  case,  but  I  believe  that  that  is  the  truth  to  press 
home  upon  the  American  people  and  upon  the  law 
makers  of  our  time. 

My  friends,  I   have    spoken   longer   than   I   in 
tended.     I  did   not   expect   to  speak   at  all;  and, 


124  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

really,  it  is  only  because  my  style  of  going  along 
in  this  matter  is  a  little  different  from  the  written 
style  which  I  should  have"  adopted  if  I  had  pre 
pared  myself,  that  it  ought  to  be  tolerated.  After 
we  have  had  so  much  fine  and  learned  eloquence, 
so  much  transcendental  eloquence,  I  thought  that 
you  could  bear  a  few  desultory  remarks  such  as  I 
have  been  trying  to  make.  (Tremendous  ap 
plause.) 

THE  CHAIRMAN: — Not  only  did  Mr.  Hale  attach 
to  himself  all  reasonable  anti-slavery  workers,  but 
scholars  and  all  men  striving  for  the  upbuilding  of 
character  in  their  fellows. 

Among  the  younger  of  the  clergy  of  his  day,  per 
haps  no  one  knew  him  better  than  Rev.  Dr.  Wood- 
bury,  formerly  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  church  in 
Concord,  and  now  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  whom  I  ask 
to  speak  of  Mr.  Hale  as  he  knew  him. 

ADDRESS  OF  REV.  AUGUSTUS  WOODBURY,  D.  D. 

It  is  an  especial  gratification  to  me  that  I  am 
able  to  participate  in  the  exercises  of  this  day.  My 
friendly  relations  with  the  generous  donor  of  the 
statue,  my  cordial  interest  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
history  of  ^ew  Hampshire,  and  my  personal  admi 
ration  of  the  character  and  public  service  of  Mr. 
Hale,  all  combine  to  make  the  occasion  one  of  satis 
faction  and  delight.  The  eloquent  oration  and  ad 
dresses  to  which  we  have  listened,  in  their  words 
of  appropriate  and  appreciative  eulogy,  have  left 
but  little  for  me  to  say,  which  can  add  to  the  dig- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  125 

nity  of  the  theme  or  the  method  of  its  treatment. 
It  is  only  a  simple  contribution  that  I  can  make 
to  the  united  and  general  voice  of  well-merited 
praise.  Yet  we  have  come  together  here  to-day 
not  to  praise  but  to  commemorate,  and  the  com 
memoration  finds  its  best  and  highest  function  in 
stimulating  ourselves  to  noble  living,  as  we  turn  our 
thoughts  to  him  who  has  won  for  himself  a  place 
among  the  noble  dead.  To  myself  as  to  you,  fel 
low-citizens,  the  name  of  John  P.  Hale  has  been 
for  half  a  century  the  synonym  of  private  and  pub 
lic  virtue,  patriotic  courage,  unswerving  devotion 
to  the  principles  of  religious  and  political  freedom, 
and  an  unfaltering  advocacy  of  the  dearest  rights 
of  man.  Stark  was  the  brave  soldier,  Web 
ster  the  consummate  orator,  Hale  the  champion 
of  liberty  for  all.  It  is  well  that  they  should  be 
grouped  here,  their  forms  and  features  preserved  in 
enduring  bronze,  to  teach  the  generations  to  come, 
that  fidelity  of  service  to  the  Republic,  in  whatever 
field  it  may  be  displayed,  will  ever  be  held  in  high, 
affectionate,  and  permanent  esteem.  A  sincere 
feeling  of  gratitude  for  the  labors  of  those  who 
have  helped  to  shape  "  the  fortune  of  the  Republic  " 
mingles  with  the  desire  to  do  what  we  can  in  the 
work  of  perpetuating  the  story  of  their  deeds.  But 
it  is  ever  to  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  what  we 
may  do  or  say  that  honors  their  memory  Rather 
would  we  be  assured  that  the  opportunity  which 
is  given  to  us  of  recalling  their  services,  imparts  an 
honor  to  ourselves. 

The  word  which  I  have  to  speak  must  necessarily 
be  one  of  reminiscence.      It  was  in  my  boyhood, 


126  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

while  a  student  at  Exeter,  that  I  first  saw  and 
heard  John  P.  Hale.  He  was  then  in  the  flush  of 
his  ambition  and  hope.  Deeply  interested  as  I  was, 
even  at  that  early  day,  in  the  questions  which  were 
then  agitating  the  public  mind,  I  was  one  of  the 
assembly  that  crowded  the  Town  hall  at  Exeter  to 
hear  the  discussion  in  which  Mr.  Hale  was  to  take 
part.  Of  course  I  cannot  remember  the  exact  words 
which  were  spoken.  I  can  only  recall  the  impres 
sion  which  was  made  upon  my  youthful  mind. 
Particularly  was  I  struck  by  the  sturdy  indepen 
dence,  the  outspoken  boldness,  which  were  charac 
teristic  of  the  orator,  whose  magnetic  presence, 
good-humored  wit,  and  resonant  eloquence  aroused 
the  audience  to  an  admiring  enthusiasm.  The  ag 
gressiveness  of  the  slave  power  was  still  far  from 
the  point  of  actual  resistance  to  the  government, 
but  the  mutterings  of  the  coming  storm  in  the  move 
ment  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  had  begun  to  be 
heard,  and  it  was  quite  evident  that  Mr.  Hale  was 
not  to  be  terrified  or  even  alarmed  by  any  threat 
ening  cloud  that  might  appear  upon  the  political 
horizon.  How  he  met  the  tempest  when  it  came, 
and  how  he  bore  himself  in  the  strife  of  elements,  is 
a  matter  of  history,  and  has  been  well  set  forth  in 
the  addresses  which  have  already  been  spoken. 
For  myself,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  interest 
with  which  I  listened  to  his  fervid  oratory  grew  in 
to  admiration,  when,  in  after  years,  I  watched  his 
public  career,  rejoiced  in  his  successes,  and  had  the 
honor,  for  a  brief  period,  of  his  personal  acquaint 
ance. 

I   speak   of  this  incident  to-day  because  it  has 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  127 

reference  to  a  matter  of  great  importance  which 
any  one  who  addresses  a  public  assembly  should 
bear  in  mind.  Among  his  auditors  there  will  cer 
tainly  be  a  greater  or  less  number  of  young  hearers, 
who  will  catch  the  tone  and  spirit  of  the  address, 
and  who  will  be  affected  by  them  to  a  considerable 
degree.  It  is  often  the  case,  that  an  apparently 
casual  word  will  determine  the  current  of  a  young 
man's  thought,  and  possibly  turn  the  direction  of 
his  life.  It  may  arouse  his  ambition  to  achieve  a 
generous,  brave,  and  honorable  manhood,  or  it  may 
lead  him  to  sordid,  mercenary,  and  unworthy 
courses.  The  young  are  very  quick  to  receive  im 
pressions,  and  in  the  fresh  soil  of  an  immature 
mind  the  good  seed  germinates  quickly,  or  noxious 
weeds  find  a  ready  opportunity  for  growth.  As 
Mr.  Lincoln,  in  one  of  his  addresses,  said,  "  these 
early  impressions  last  longer  than  any  others."  The 
young  men  of  the  country  set  forward  to  true, 
patriotic,  and  unselfish  living  by  the  words  of  their 
public  teachers,  would,  as  Mr.  Emerson  said  they 
should,  "  bind  each  other  to  loyalty  "  at  the  altar, 
"  where  genius  would  kindle  its  fires  and  bring 
forgotten  truth  to  the  eyes  of  men."  But  it  is  the 
bearing  and  spirit  of  the  speaker  himself  that  pro 
duces  the  effect — the  unconscious  influence  of  the 
character  of  the  orator,  that  works  out  the  result. 
A  brave  and  manly  sincerity  will  touch  the  heart 
of  the  listener,  and  stir  the  mind  to  noble  thought. 
A  false  and  insincere  spirit  will  be  sure  to  manifest 
itself.  The  young  are  quick  to  detect  the  inner 
soul  of  the  man,  and  to  those  eager  eyes  there  can 
be  no  concealment.  "  The  style  is  the  man,"  it  is 


128  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

sometimes  said.  But  the  style  reaches  farther  than 
the  construction  of  finely  rounded  periods.  In  its 
best  expression,  it  is  the^  true  and  noble  utterance 
of  true  and  noble  thought.  Lincoln's  Gettysburg 
address,  brief  as  it  is,  outweighs  the  stately  oration 
of  Everett,  and  carries  away  the  honors  of  the  occa 
sion  by  the  sheer  force  of  its  complete  sincerity. 
This,  as  it  seems  to  me,  was  characteristic  of  the 
utterance  of  Hale.  Although  a  hypercriticism 
might  detect  some  unimportant  faults  of  rhetoric, 
the  most  patient  investigation  could  find  nothing 
to  detract  from  the  courage  and  truthfulness,  that 
gave  vividness  and  force  to  his  ardent  and  impas 
sioned  oratory. 

Later  on,  in  my  early  manhood,  I  heard  Mr.  Hale 
on  an  entirely  different  occasion.  It  is  well  known 
among  his  friends  that  he  once  essayed,  for  a  sea 
son  at  least,  the  task  of  a  lecturer  in  the  desk  of 
the  popular  lyceum,  which  at  one  time  occupied  a 
considerable  space  in  the  public  regard.  Like  all 
other  men  who  are  accustomed  to  the  freedom  of 
extemporaneous  speech,  Mr.  Hale's  manner  was 
more  subdued,  when  confined  to  a  manuscript  upon 
the  lecture  platform,  than  when  he  spoke  in  the 
spontaneous  oratory  of  the  public  rostrum.  The 
subject  which  he  chose  may  not  have  been  so  at 
tractive  as  one  more  closely  related  to  the  questions 
of  popular  debate.  It  was  the  "  Last  Gladiatorial 
Combat  in  Rome,"  which  he  undertook  to  depict. 
Nevertheless,  a  theme  apparently  so  remote  as  that 
became,  in  his  hands,  the  opportune  appeal  to  the 
noblest  moral  instincts  of  his  hearers.  He  told,  in 
graphic  style,  and  in  clear,  incisive  language,  the 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  129 

story  of  the  Christian  monk,  Telemachus,  who  in 
the  year  404  made  a  special  and  sacred  mission  to 
Rome,  and  at  the  supreme  moment  of  a  gladiatorial 
fight  threw  himself  into  the  midst  of  the  strife  and 
sacrificed  his  life  in  a  vain  attempt  to  separate  the 
combatants  and  put  an  end  to  the  bloody  and  inhu 
man  spectacle.  He  paid  the  penalty  of  his  temer 
ity.  But  even  the  hard  hearts  of  the  brutal  Roman 
populace  were  touched  by  the  unexpected  scene. 
The  Emperor  Honorius,  induced  by  the  report  of 
the  transaction,  abolished  the  gladiatorial  games, 
and  the  carnage  came  to  an  end.  Never  again  were 
the  sands  of  the  arena  stained  by  the  blood  of  those 
brave  men  who  were  brought  from  their  distant 
homes  and  "  butchered  to  make  a  Roman  holiday." 
The  self-sacrifice  of  the  Christian  disciple  had  con 
quered  even  a  Roman's  greed  for  blood. 

The  story  having  been  told,  the  application,  as 
Mr.  Hale  made  it,  was  obvious.  In  solemn,  digni 
fied,  and  impressive  accents,  he  closed  his  address 
in  words  like  these,  as  they  recur  to  me  through 
the  remembrance  of  nearly  forty  years:  "Is  there 
not  an  institution  in  our  own  land  as  deeply  and 
thoroughly  seated  in  the  social  and  political  life  of 
the  nation  as  that  bloody  spectacle  in  the  social  and 
political  life  of  imperial  Rome?  May  not  the  time 
come,  when,  even  though  it  be  but  by  a  single 
man's  devotion  to  conscience  and  God,  the  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice,  bravely  moving  to  an  offering  of  per 
sonal  happiness  and  life,  shall  be  as  fully  effectual 
in  putting  an  end  to  this  barbaric  power  of  slavery? 
Surely,  among  American  citizens  such  an  act  of 
an  equally  supreme  heroism  cannot  be  impossible." 


130  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

Doubtless  he  did  not  imagine,  as  no  one  among  us 
was  able  at  the  time  to  foresee,  that,  not  one,  but 
hundreds  of  thousands,  of  American  citizens,  would 
lay  their  lives  upon  the  altar  of  their  nation's  free 
dom,  and,  by  the  sacrifice,  which  had  its  climax  in 
the  death  of  the  martyred  president,  put  an  end 
forever  to  the  curse  that  had  so  long  blighted  the 
land  that  was  worth  loving  "  beyond  compare." 

Thus  it  came  to  pass,  the  impressions  of  my  boy 
hood's  days  deepened  into  the  conclusions  of  my 
manhood's  years.  In  the  sober  light  of  history,  too, 
which  clearly  reveals  both  the  virtues  and  the  weak 
nesses  of  human  nature,  I  have  seen  no  reason  to 
change  the  opinion  or  lower  the  estimate  of  the 
character  of  the  man  in  honoring  whom  the  state  of 
New  Hampshire  honors  herself.  John  P.  Hale 
still  stands,  and  will  always  stand,  as  the  embodi 
ment  of  manly  courage,  of  sincere,  unselfish  patriot 
ism,  of  incorruptible  statesmanship.  Liberal,  de 
vout,  and  reverential  in  his  religion,  broad  and  gen 
erous  in  thought,  as  he  was  independent  in  politics, 
he  "came  full  circle"  in  his  well-rounded  manhood, 
and  thus  his  life  career  is  to  us  and  to  all  an  inspi 
ration,  as  well  as  a  study.  "With  him,  blandish 
ments  and  threats  were  equally  ineffectual  to  turn 
him  from  the  course  which  his  convictions  of  duty 
impelled  him  to  pursue.  He  stood  upon  his  own 
feet,  spoke  his  own  words,  did  with  all  his  might 
what  his  conscience  bade  him,  and  left  the  legacy 
of  his  independent  and  faithful  life  to  his  children 
and  his  children's  children,  to  his  fellow-citizens  of 
state  and  nation,  as  an  enduring  memorial  of  his 
virtue.  If  these  voiceless  lips  could  speak,  the 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  131 

word  would  surely  be:  "  Be  brave;  be  bold  in  vir 
tue's  cause,  be  true,  be  faithful  to  conscience,  the 
deepest  convictions  of  duty  and  the  highest  ideals 
of  life.  Be  loyal  to  your  noblest  self,  your  fellow- 
men,  your  country,  God,  and  the  truth,  which  he  is 
always  revealing ! "  What  better  word  can  there 
be  than  that? 

The  granite  may  crumble  and  the  bronze  may 
waste  beneath  the  corroding  touch  of  time.  But 
right  is  right,  and  truth  is  truth  as  long  as  sun 
and  moon  endure,  and  he  who  serves  them  well  with 
self-forgetting  devotion  partakes  of  their  own  eter 
nal. 

THE  CHAIRMAN: — We  have  among  our  own 
citizens,  one  who  as  an  editor  many  years  ago  was 
described  as  a  "  Free  Soiler  with  abolition  proclivi 
ties."  Such  a  man  must  have  been  a  close  observer 
of  Mr.  Hale's  course.  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  in 
troduce  the  Hon.  Amos  Hadley. 

HOIST.  AMOS  HADLEY'S  ADDRESS. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS: — That 
statue,  mute,  but  eloquent  in  its  silence,  appeals  to 
memory  and  summons  historic  recollection.  It 
bids  the  mind  recur  to  years  nearly  half-way  along 
the  present  century's  course, — the  years  of  '45  and 
'46, — years  of  eventful  significance  in  the  political 
history  of  our  state  and  nation.  For  then  it  was 
that,  in  our  state,  liberty,  as  the  natural  right  of 
universal  humanity,  first  effectively  asserted  its 
claim  as  a  practical  cardinal  principle  in  political 


132  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

creed  and  action.  Then  it  was  that  the  security  of 
a  party  long  dominant  in  New  Hampshire  was  first 
seriously  troubled,  and  its  ascendancy  threatened, 
nay,  temporarily  overthrown,  by  the  dark-looming- 
question  of  slavery.  Then  it  was  that  the  voice  of 
one  of  the  ablest  leaders  of  that  party  was  heard 
calling  halt  to  it,  and  with  the  prophetic  sagacity 
of  high  philanthropic  statesmanship,  appealing  to 
it  to  take  new  bearings,  and  henceforth  to  march  to 
the  music  of  union  and  liberty,  and  not  of  union 
and  slavery.  That  voice  was  the  voice  of  John  P. 
Hale. 

To  use  the  pun  of  those  days  of  turbid  political 
atmosphere,  a  protracted  "  Hale-storm  "  arose.  It 
came  up  from  the  South.  It  was  generated  of 
Texas  Annexation,  a  measure  primarily  designed  to 
sustain  and  perpetuate  the  inconsistency  and  sin  of 
human  slavery  in  our  boasted  republic  of  the  free. 
A  Democratic  member  of  the  lower  house  of  con 
gress,  John  P.  Hale,  had  already  shown  manly,  but 
risky,  independence  in  opposing  the  twenty-first 
rule, — the  infamous  "  Atherton  gag  "  upon  anti- 
slavery  petitions;  but  he  had  been  renominated 
with  three  associates  upon  a  general  ticket.  Soon 
the  "New  Hampshire  legislature,  in  its  quadrennial 
winter  session  of  1844-5,  instructed  the  congres 
sional  delegation  to  support  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  But  circumstances  had  evolved  a  moral 
hero,  ready  to  surrender  "  office,  place,  and  power, 
rather  than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery."  Such 
evolution  could  not  but  work  commotion.  Within 
ten  days,  John  P.  Hale,  from  his  seat  in  congress, 
boldly  met  the  legislative  instruction  with  a  letter, 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  133 

in  which  he  flatly  refused  compliance,  and  de 
nounced  the  aims  and  purposes  of  the  annexation 
measure,  and  the  reasons  urged  therefor,  as  "  emi 
nently  calculated  to  provoke  the  scorn  of  earth, 
and  the  judgment  of  Heaven."  That  letter  was  a 
thunderbolt,  close  herald  of  a  storm — a  storm  of 
"  hailstones  and  coals  of  fire!  " 

There  was  a  fearful  rattling  among  the  dry  bones 
of  party  conservatism.  There  was  a  waking  up 
with  hornet  wrath  not  unmixed  with  fear.  There 
was  hurry-scurry  among  the  Democratic  leaders, 
who  said  one  to  another,  "  Away  with  him — the  pes 
tilent  fellow  with  his  twaddle  of  freedom ! "  The 
state  convention  was  reassembled,  a  month  before 
the  March  election  of  1845,  the  refractory  candi 
date  was  dropped,  and  one  was  substituted  in 
whose  party  subservience  there  was  "  no  guile." 
But  while  the  spirit  of  angry  revenge  was  thus 
aroused  in  the  Democratic  party,  conscience  was 
also  awakened  therein  to  the  important  issue,  and 
the  resolute,  though  discarded,  candidate  had  those 
who  stood  by  him  and  his  righteous  cause.  A 
cleavage  showed  itself  in  the  party's  hitherto  com 
pact  solidity.  At  the  ensuing  election,  while  the 
other  congressional  candidates  were  chosen,  the 
substitute  for  Mr.  Hale  was  not.  Three  other  trials 
were  made  in  course  of  the  year, — the  last  in 
March,  1846, — but  with  no  choice  of  the  fourth 
member;  Mr.  Hale's  place  in  congress  remained 
unfilled. 

The  storm  had  been  on,  fiercely  pelting  all  the 
while.  Hale's  canvasses  had  covered  the  state  from 
the  Cochecho  to  the  Connecticut,  and  from  Coos  to 


134  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

Strawberry  Bank.  His  arguments  and  appeals, 
heard  clear,  strong,  and  convincing  above  the 
angry,  clamorous  din  of  overbearing,  denunciatory 
opposition,  had  sunk  deep  into  many  hearts,  infus 
ing  them  with  courage  to  break  the  ties  of  party, 
for  conscience,  country,  truth,  and  liberty.  Deeper 
and  deeper  had  grown  the  cleavage  in  the  rock  of 
Granite  Democracy,  till  the  "  Independent  Demo 
crats ''  had  become  a  considerable  party.  Accord 
ingly,  at  the  March  election  of  1846,  the  Anti- 
Democratic  parties,  though  retaining  two  organiza 
tions  and  supporting  two  state  tickets,  had  together 
won,  potentially,  a  sweeping  anti-slavery  triumph. 
Here,  indeed,  was  something  new  under  the  sun. 

It  was  now  the  first  Wednesday  of  June,  1846 — 
the  day  for  organizing  anew  the  state  government. 
The  effects  of  the  great  political  storm  were  strik 
ingly  visible.  No  governor,  no  quorum  of  council 
or  senate  had  been  chosen  by  popular  vote;  but  a 
house  of  representatives  had  been;  and  that,  by 
wise  coalition,  was  anti-slavery  by  a  safe  majority. 
And  that  house,  too,  contained  among  its  members 
one  John  P.  Hale  of  Dover.  He  there  to  lead  the 
anti-slavery  majority?  He  there  with  an  un expired 
and  a  full  term  in  the  United  States  senate  at  the 
disposal  of  that  legislature?  Were  indeed  "the 
stars  in  their  courses  fighting  against  Sisera?  "  So 
it  would  certainly  seem,  whether  "  Sisera "  was 
John  P.  Hale's  former  party,  or  slavery  itself. 

On  the  bright  morning  of  that  third  day  of  June, 
1846,  intense  interest  centered  in  the  New  Hamp 
shire  house  of  representatives.  And  here  pursuing 
briefly  a  train  of  personal  reminiscence,  I  will 


UNVEILING    CEUEMONIES.  185* 

relate  what  I  saw  and  heard.  Standing  in  the 
crowded  south  gallery  of  the  old  capitol,  I  looked 
down  upon  that  full  house,  comprising  able  men 
of  both  parties;  for  practically  there  were  but  two. 
The  oath  has  been  administered  by  Governor 
Steele,  the  outgoing  executive,  the  clerk  of  the  last 
house  has  called  to  order,  and  Thomas  E.  Sawyer 
of  Dover  has  been  chosen  chairman.  Now  the 
balloting  for  speaker  is  on.  The  definite  test  of 
party  strength  is  making;  there  is  the  correspond 
ing  stress  of  interest.  The  votes  are  gathered, 
sorted  and  counted,  and  the  chairman  announces, 
amidst  the  breathless  attention  of  house  and  gal 
leries,  this  result: 

"Whole  number  of  votes  cast,  260;  necessary 
to  a  choice,  131;  Henry  B.  Rust  has  1 ;  George  G. 
Fogg  has  2;  Samuel  Swasey  has  118;  John  P. 
Hale  has  139; — and  John  P.  Hale  having  a  ma 
jority  of  the  votes  cast,  is  elected  speaker." 

Glad  applause  greets  the  announcement.  Mr. 
Hale  arises  and  passes  with  prompt  and  dignified 
step  to  the  speaker's  chair.  ~No  curule  chair, — it 
seemed  to  me  then,  and  it  seems  to  me  now — could 
ever  be  more  becomingly  filled.  The  new  speaker 
was  in  the  vigorous  maturity  of  forty  years,  of 
strong  and  symmetric  physical  build,  with  a  face 
glowing  with  ruddy  health,  bright  with  brilliance  of 
intellect  and  genialness  of  heart, — a  face,  hand 
some,  good-natured,  jovial  even,  but  with  a  will  in 
it.  A  man  of  cool  self-possession,  easy  dignity, 
and  admirable  poise,  the  speaker  stood  in  his  place, 
and  pronounced  his  address  of  acceptance  in  the 
clear,  mellow  tones  of  that  voice  which  had  been 


136  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

heard  enunciating  with  such  effect,  for  more  than  a 
year,  throughout  the  state,  the  gospel  of  liberty. 
In  the  course  of  that  address,  independence  of 
opinion  was  urged  with  a  most  effective  appro 
priateness,  in  these  words : 

"  Coming  together  from  the  different  parts  of  the 
state — representing  her  various  interests,  and,  a 
fact  neither  to  be  denied  nor  kept  out  of  sight,  ex 
ponents  of  widely  different  political  sentiments — en 
tire  unanimity  of  opinion  is  not  to  be  expected,  per 
haps  not  to  be  desired.  But  if  we  must  differ,  we 
can  respect  honest  differences  of  opinion,  according 
to  each  other  the  same  integrity  of  purpose  which 
we  claim  for  ourselves." 

^Tever  shall  I  forget  with  what  rich  melody  of 
tone,  impressive  emphasis,  and  depth  of  conviction, 
the  speaker  uttered  these,  among  his  closing 
words : — 

"  For  myself,  gentlemen,  in  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  of  this  chair,  and  in  every  other  position  in 
which  the  voice  of  the  people  or  the  providence  of 
God  may  call  me  to  act,  I  shall  read  for  myself, — 
and  I  suggest  the  same  for  your  consideration, — 
that  immortal  sentiment,  which  the  wisdom  of  our 
fathers  placed  as  the  corner  stone  of  our  constitu 
tion,  i  that  all  men  are  created  equally  free  and  in 
dependent,'  as  the  most  emphatic  declaration  of  the 
will  of  the  people  of  Kew  Hampshire." 

The  speaker  had  closed  amid  appreciative  ap 
plause,  when  one  at  my  side,  not  liking  the  present 
turn  of  politics,  uttered  to  another  of  kindred  sen 
timents,  the  sneering  criticism,  "  Abolition !"  To 
which  came  the  reply,  in  a  similar  tone,  "  Yes,  he 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  137 

means  the  nigger."  Inadvertently  significant  were 
those  sneers.  Yes,  Hale  did  "  mean  the  negro,"  as 
a  fellow-man  divinely  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of 
humanity,  and  he  would  mean  the  negro  all  along 
in  the  coming  years ;  the  free  North,  too,  would  get 
to  "  mean  the  negro,"  more  and  more ;  ay,  and  the 
time  was  coming  when  the  voice  of  the  God  of 
Nations  and  of  Justice  would  be  heard  amid  the 
bloody  terrors  of  slavery-engendered  war, — and 
heard  to  be  obeyed, — I  mean  the  negro.  "Let  the 
oppressed  go  free." 

But  this  train  of  reminiscence  must  here  be  left. 
That  it  has  been  pursued  thus  far,  or  even  at  all, 
finds  a  reason  in  the  more  than  ordinary  historic 
significance  of  its  main  fact.  That  occupancy  of 
the  speaker's  chair  by  John  P.  Hale,  representing, 
as  it  did,  early  successful  resistance  to  the  behests 
of  slavery,  was,  as  seen  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
history,  an  important  one  in  the  series  of  events 
that  culminated  in  slavery  destroyed  and  the  Union 
saved. 

Did  time  and  the  scope  of  this  effort  permit, 
another  scene  might  be  depicted — that  enacted  six 
days  later  in  the  same  legislature,  when  Speaker 
Hale,  rejected  by  his  former  party  from  the  lower 
house  of  congress,  was  elected  to  the  senate  of  the 
United  States  for  six  years  from  the  4th  of  March, 
1847.  Oh,  what  revenge  of  fortune  was  this! 
"What  condign  poetic  justice !  Verily  the  mills  of 
the  gods  took  on  unusual  speed  while  grinding 
with  their  usual  fineness!  Six  years,  then  four, 
then  six  again, — sixteen  years  in  the  senate  of  the 
United  States — such  was  John  P.  Hale's  great 


138  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

opportunity;  that  he  sacredly  improved  it  in  faith 
ful,  fearless  service  for  country,  liberty,  and  human 
ity,  is  his  clear,  safe  title  to  enduring  fame. 

It  is  the  proud  honor  of  New  Hampshire  to  have 
been  the  first  in  much  of  historic  well-doing;  but 
never  was  she  more  nobly  first  than  when  she 
elected  John  P.  Hale  as  the  first  anti-slavery  sena 
tor  of  the  United  States.  As  such  he  stood  alone 
in  his  place  for  two  years,  holding  his  own,  all  pano 
plied  as  he  was,  in  reason,  wit,  and  good  nature  to 
attack  or  to  defend.  But  there  came  by  and  by, 
from  fair  Ohio,  to  stand  by  his  side,  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  another  stalwart  son  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  ere  long  appeared  Charles  Sumner,  the  pride 
of  Massachusetts,  to  reinforce  the  two.  And  there 
they  wrought  together  in  their  good  work,  and 
there  they  fought  together  the  good  fight — Hale, 
Chase,  and  Sumner — an  immortal  three! 

Thus,  then,  the  beautiful  and  impressive  memo 
rial  in  bronze,  in  the  unveiled  presence  of  which  we 
now  stand,  has  full  and  glorious  reason  to  be;  for 
in  the  recent  expressive  words  of  Frederick  Doug 
lass, — honor  ever  be  to  the  name  of  that  great  and 
noble  freedman,  freeman,  and  American  citizen, — 
"  No  statue  of  patriot,  statesman,  or  philanthropist 
of  our  times  will  convey  to  aftercoming  generations 
a  lesson  of  moral  heroism  more  sublime." 

THE  CHAIRMAN  : — I  cannot  bring  myself  to  the 
point  of  formally  introducing  to  a  New  Hampshire 
audience  the  next  and  last  speaker.  I  can  only 
say  that,  in  looking  over  my  list,  I  thought  that 
Dr.  Quint  would  be  a  good  man  to  close  the  speak- 


UNVEILING    CEREMONIES.  1391 

ing,  and  that  he  would  manage  an  audience  sur 
feited  with  good  addresses  better  than  any  man 
with  whom  I  am  acquainted:  The  Rev.  Dr.  Quint, 
of  Dover. 

REV.  DR.  ALONZO  H.  QUESTl'S  ADDRESS. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  CITIZENS  OF  NEW  HAMP 
SHIRE:  I  hope  I  shall  not  long  detain  you  from 
that  doxology  which  is  promised,  but  I  have  the 
floor,  and  you  must  trust  to  my  generosity.  I 
count  it  an  honor  to  be  invited  to  participate  in  the 
exercises  of  this  occasion,  when  ~New  Hampshire, 
through  the  thousands  of  citizens  here  assembled, 
recognizes  the  greatness  of  one  of  its  greatest  sons 
— great  not  merely  because  of  his  remarkable  pow 
ers,  but  because  the  application  of  those  powers 
had  its  heroic  and  moral  aspect,  in  which  con 
science  and  right  seemed  instinctive.  If  I  had 
ever  had  a  doubt  whether  I  did  right  in  voting  in 
yonder  legislative  halls  for  the  distinguished  sen 
ator  now  upon  this  platform,  to  represent  this  state 
in  that  high  office, — of  which  I  never  had  a  doubt, 
— that  doubt  would  have  ended  in  seeing  how  the 
senator  has  intuitively  interpreted  the  sentiments 
and  qualified  the  desires  of  the  people  of  New 
Hampshire  by  placing  this  noble  statue  in  these 
grounds.  His  act  is  an  act  for  which  the  people 
of  this  state  will  be  eminently  grateful.  The  mem 
bers  of  the  legislature,  in  passing  up  this  walk, 
may  see  the  face  of  one  who  always  stood  for  con 
science  and  for  right — a  man  who  was  willing  to 
be  set  aside  and  stand  alone,  exposed  to  calumny 


140  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

and  abuse,  rather  than  surrender  his  convictions. 
Legislators  can  then  properly  enter  yonder  doors, 
and  pass  uncovered,  as  I  always  did,  before  the 
torn  and  scarred  and  bullet-riddled  flags,  and  be 
fore  the  portraits  of  noble  sons  of  this  state,  who 
gave  their  lives  upon  the  battle-field  for  the  flag 
and  liberty. 

That  young  boy  who  has  to-day  unveiled  this 
statue  has  performed  a  notable  act.  He  will  re 
member  it  during  his  life.  He  has  promise,  but  he 
will  have  to  contend  with  the  fact,  in  attaining 
public  success,  that  he  has  a  father's  and  mother's 
father's  memory  with  which  to  compete. 

In  early  life,  that  is,  in  my  boyhood,  I  knew 
something  of  the  man  to  whom  we  pay  honor  to 
day.  There  was  in  him  the  peculiar  genial  qual 
ities  which  drew  young  life  to  him.  He  attracted 
us.  My  father,  from  the  same  political  party,  went 
with  John  P.  Hale  in  his  separation  from  former 
associates.  I  remember  hearing  men  discuss  the 
little  convention  of  old  "  liberty  men,"  which  met 
to  consider  whether  to  sustain  him  in  his  move 
ment.  Would  that  Moses  A.  and  Jonathan  Cart- 
land,  Oliver  Wyatt,  and  others  like  them,  had  sur 
vived  to  be  present  on  this  occasion!  I  remember 
a  special  incident.  I  was  often  in  the  printing- 
office  in  Dover,  where  I  learned  to  set  type,  and 
where  Mr.  Hale  had  a  warm  friend  in  the  editor 
and  proprietor  of  the  political  organ.  The  famous 
letter  came,  denouncing  the  proposed  annexation  of 
Texas.  It  was  in  type,  and  in  the  evening  before 
the  issue  of  the  paper  I  saw  "  in  proof"  the  editor's 
hearty  commendation  of  the  letter.  You  may  fancy 


UN  VEILING   CEREMONIES.  141 

my  surprise  in  finding  next  morning,  when  the 
paper  was  issued,  that  the  commendation  had  been 
cancelled,  and  that  there  had  been  substituted,  if  I 
remember  correctly,  a  colorless  statement  that  com 
ment  was  deferred.  It  was  learned  that  two  dis 
tinguished  politicians  had  driven  to  Dover  in  the 
night  and  persuaded  the  reluctant  editor  to  strike 
out  the  commendatory  paragraph.  Mr.  Hale  felt 
the  defection  of  his  staunch  friend. 

My  distinguished  relative,  Col.  Daniel  Hall,  has 
told  you  with  exquisite  analysis  and  richness  of 
thought  the  history  of  those  struggles  so  far  as 
Mr.  Hale  was  the  principal  actor.  He  stood  prac 
tically  alone.  It  seemed  the  end  of  his  public 
career.  But  I  believe  that  no  allusion  has  been 
made  to  what  I  hesitatingly  will  refer  to.  I  trust 
it  will  not  be  considered  a  violation  of  delicacy  if 
I  allude  to  the  fact  that  many  a  man  gets  his 
noblest  inspirations  in  the  home  circle,  and  that 
this  man  found,  in  his  great  sacrifice,  the  warmest 
support  where  he  felt  its  value,  and  the  strength 
ening  of  a  purpose  to  give  up  everything  but  honor 
— public  office,  party  associates,  future  fame. 

I  must  say  something  for  New  Hampshire  to 
day,  for  New  Hampshire  is  a  grand  old  state. 
Not  the  least  of  its  glory  is  in  that  it  sent  this  first 
anti-slavery  senator  to  the  senate-house.  It  was 
two  years  before  another  state  did  likewise;  and  it 
was  four  years,  let  it  be  remembered,  before  Massa 
chusetts  sent  Summer  to  reinforce  the  great  pio 
neer.  Massachusetts  is  a  great  state,  and  we  wel 
come  its  people  every  summer  to  our  great  moun 
tains.  In  all  soberness,  I  certainly  cannot  forget 


142  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

certain  relic-banners  hanging  listlessly  in  the  state- 
house  at  Boston,  nor  the  heroic  dead  who  carried 
those  flags,  with  whom  it  was  my  glorious  privi 
lege  to  be  a  comrade  in  long  years  of  bivouac  and 
battle.  But  New  Hampshire,  my  native  state,  gave 
the  first  anti-slavery  senator.  New  Hampshire 
has  usually  been  foremost  in  history.  Men  hear  of 
Lexington  and  Concord,  but  it  was  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  four  months  earlier,  that  the  first  armed  con 
flict  with  the  crown  took  place,  when  New  Hamp 
shire  men  captured  the  royal  fort  "  William  and 
Mary"  in  broad  daylight,  against  the  fire  of  mus 
kets  and  cannon,  and  with  cheers  pulled  down 
the  royal  flag.  It  was  a  story  which  Mr.  Hale 
used  to  love  to  tell,  how  New  Hampshire  equipped 
John  Stark's  independent  command  which  con 
quered  at  Bennington,  and  thus  secured  the  French 
alliance  which  gave  us  final  independence.  It  was 
fitting  that  New  Hampshire  should  lead  in  the  con 
test  for  human  liberty  in  the  senate  of  the  United 
States.  When  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  ended, 
the  close  of  his  twenty  years'  contest,  it  was  signal 
ized  by  the  entrance  of  our  troops  into  Richmond. 
Two  loyal  Southern  women,  who  had  long  been 
under  guard,  saw  the  bayonets  and  the  flag  of  the 
first  entering  regiment,  and,  with  streaming  eyes, 
kneeled  down  upon  the  pavement  and  thanked 
God  for  the  sight.  That  first  regiment  was  the 
Thirteenth  New  Hampshire.  It  was  the  suitable 
conclusion  to  the  beginning  of  New  Hampshire's 
great  senatorship;  and  it  was  right  that  John  P. 
Hale,  who  remembered  his  solitary  entrance  into 
the  Capitol,  should  live  to  see  the  victory. 


UNVEILTNG   CEREMONIES.  143 

John  Parker  Hale  was  worthy  of  !N"ew  Hamp 
shire,  and  New  Hampshire  was  worthy  of  John 
Parker  Hale.  This  statue  is  to  stand  here  in  the 
heat  of  summer  and  the  cold  of  winter,  just  as  he 
stood  in  the  storms  of  the  great  contest.  When 
next  Memorial  Day  comes  round,  let  the  comrades 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  strew  flowers 
at  the  foot  of  this  statue,  as  being  the  memorial  of 
one  equally  deserving  with  every  man  who  fell  in 
the  fight  or  who  lived  to  come  home  from  the  con 
flict. 

The  exercises,  after  four  hours,  were  formally 
brought  to  a  close  by  the  chairman,  but  the  audi 
ence  pressed  around  the  platform  and  called  for 
more  singing,  and  Mr.  Hutchinson,  with  Mrs. 
Abbie  Hutchinson  Patton,*  who  was  present  with 
her  husband,  sang  various  old  songs  of  freedom, 
Mr.  Douglass  assisting  in  the  service. 

The  song  "  The  Old  Granite  State  "  was  asked 
for  and  rendered  in  the  words  here  given,  from  a 
draft  dated  Bradford,  !N".  H.,  September  13,  1845, 
in  the  handwriting  of  Hon.  Mason  "W.  Tappan,  as 
follows : 


*  Mrs.  Patton  on  the  tenth  day  of  September  at  Amesbury,  Mass., 
again  sung  at  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Whittier,  and  she  died  in  New  York 
city  November  24,  1892,  and  was  buried  on  the  29th,  at  Milford,  N.  II . 
John  W.  Hutchinson  is  the  only  survivor  of  the  famous  quartette  of 
anti-slavery  singers.  If  this  memorial  volume  were  not  already  too 
large  the  compiler  would  feel  impelled  to  publish  a  glowing  tribute  to 
the  Hutchinson  family,  and  especially  to  the  sweet  woman  singer, 
written  by  Mr.  Frank  B.  Carpenter  and  published  in  the  New  York 
Home  Journal  of  December  7,  1892.  A  brief  sketch  of  the  Hutchinson 
family  is  also  published  by  Mayor  P.  B.  Cogswell  in  the  Granite 
Monthly  for  December,  1892. 


144  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

WELCOME  TO  HON.  JOHN  P.  HALE. 
TUNE — Old  Granite  State,  as  sung  by  the  Hutchinsons. 

From  each  mountain  top  and  valley, 
And  from  every  street  and  alley, 
Let  the  friends  of  freedom  rally, 

In  the  Old  Granite  State- 
To  sustain  the  friend  of  freedom, 
To  sustain  the  friend  of  freedom, 

In  his  conflict  for  the  right. 

Come  and  let  us  swell  the  chorus 
While  victory  hovers  o'er  us — 
Tyrants  all  shall  quail  before  us, 

In  the  Old  Granite  State. 
It  shall  ne'er  be  said  by  any, 
It  shall  ne'er  be  said  by  any, 

That  New  Hampshire's  sons  are  slaves ! 

John  Parker  Hale  of  Dover, 
John  Parker  Hale  of  Dover, 

In  the  Old  Granite  State, 
On  the  right  of  Petition, 
On  the  right  of  Petition, 
Like  a  true-hearted  freeman, 

Gave  his  vote  against  the  "  Gag !  " 

And  when  Calhoun  would  annex  us 
To  slave-holding,  slave-cursed  Texas, 
That  forever  they  might  vex  us, 

And  perpetuate  their  crime, 
HALE  opposed  the  deadly  union, 
HALE  opposed  the  deadly  union, 
And  refused  the  foul  commission, — 

LET  HIS  NAME  WITH  HONOR  SHINE  ! 

And  now  when  others  falter, 
"  Burn  strange  fire  "  on  Freedom's  Altar, 
Tamely  creep,  or  meanly  falter, 
In  the  Old  Granite  State ; 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  145 

Still  on  Justice  firmly  planted, 
Still  on  Justice  firmly  planted, 
He  will  face  the  Storm  undaunted 
In  the  Old  Granite  State. 

May  success  crown  each  endeavor, 
May  success  crown  each  endeavor, 

Of  Freedom's  faithful  friend, 
And  sustain  him  we  will  ever, 
And  sustain  him  we  will  ever, 

Till  oppression's  days  shall  end. 

Brave  champion  of  Freedom, 
Brave  champion  of  Freedom, 

In  the  Old  Granite  State, 
We  give  you  now  a  WELCOME, 
We  give  you  now  a  WELCOME, 

To  our  homes  among  the  hills  ! 

Bradford,  N.  H.,  September  13,  1845. 

Mr.  John  W.  Hutchinson  next  narrated  reminis 
cences  of  Mr.  Hale,  and  spoke  of  his  own  personal 
relations  with  him.  During  the  exercises  he  had 
sung  his  own  tribute,  as  follows  : 

0  son  of  New  Hampshire,  thy  fame  cannot  fade. 
In  the  hearts  of  our  people  thine  image  inlaid. 
This  statue  in  grandeur  now  points  to  the  sky, 
A  lesson  is  teaching  to  each  passer  by : 
A  lesson  to  battle  with  life  day  by  day, 
And  courage  to  conquer  its  foes  by  the  way. 

We  must  stand  like  our  granite,  and  moving  be  strong ; 
Let  our  glory  live  ever  in  story  and  song. 

In  the  hearts  of  our  nation,  as  imbedded  in  gold, 

Our  Rogers  and  Hale,  and  hundreds  untold 

Of  brave  hearts  who  stood  for  justice  and  right, 

And  in  every  reform  its  battle  we  '11  fight. 

New  Hampshire  stands  foremost  and  mighty  in  fame ; 

She  has  left  a  fair  record  and  glorious  name. 
10 


146  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

Gone  are  slavery's  days ;  the  oppressed  ones  are  free, 
Forever  to  rest  under  liberty's  tree. 
The  brave  men  who  stood  forth  in  martial  array 
Are  falling ;  like  leaves  they  are  passing  away. 

But  they  stood  like  our  granite,  and  in  battle  were  strong ; 
Let  their  glory  live  ever  in  story  and  song. 

He  whose  statue  to-day  in  honor  we  raise 
Bared  his  breast  to  the  tempest  in  Freedom's  dark  days, 
And  while  through  the  world  truth  and  justice  prevail 
Shall  be  loved  and  be  honored  the  memory  of  Hale. 

Then  be  true  to  our  banner  and  liberty  strong, 
That  our  glory  live  ever  in  story  and  song. 

Mr.  Hutchinson  also  sang  the  verses  composed 
for  the  occasion  by  that  veteran  freesoiler,  Mr. 
George  W.  Putnam,  of  130  Brookline  street,  Lynn, 
Mass.,  as  follows  : 

Here  from  our  mountain  homes  we  come, 
Heart  answering  heart,  hand  grasping  hand, 

To  honor  one  who  stood  for  Right 
"When  darkness  covered  all  the  land. 

The  tyrant's  power  with  iron  will 

Had  hunted  Freedom  to  her  death ; 
And  crouching  low  o'er  patriot  graves 

Their  children  spoke  with  bated  breath. 

Around  the  Nation's  Capitol 

The  bondmen  clanked  their  heavy  chains ; 

And  "  Free  Speech  "  died  when  Lovejoy's  blood 
Crimsoned  fair  Alton's  distant  plains. 

Long  years  of  darkness  came  and  went, 

The  weak  still  trampled  by  the  strong, 
Until  the  cry  went  forth  that  we 

Had  insult  borne,  and  shame,  too  long ! 


UNVEILING   CEREMONIES.  147 

And  then  that  "  man  John — sent  from  God," 

Strong  in  the  truth,  and  free  and  brave, 
Summoned — as  with  a  trumpet  call — 

Our  buried  manhood  from  its  grave. 

Calmly  he  stood,  awhile  the  storm 

Gathered  along  his  darkling  path, 
Denunciation's  thunder  tones, 

And  hissing  waves  of  human  wrath. 

And  while  above,  around,  below, 

The  tempests  raged  and  skies  grew  black, 
He  faced  the  foe,  and  proudly  bade 

The  waves  of  tyranny  roll  back ! 

The  true  of  heart,  the  strong  of  soul, 

With  purpose  grand  around  him  came, 
And  soon  our  valleys  rang  with  songs, 

The  mountain  peaks  were  all  aflame. 

Through  the  broad  land  his  thrilling  call 

Waked  the  old  spirit  of  our  sires, 
And  kindled  high  in  million  hearts 

The  flame  from  Freedom's  altar  fires ! 

In  the  proud  nation's  council  hall, 

Thundering  beneath  its  lofty  dome, 
He  met  the  swelling  tide  of  crime, 

Like  granite  of  his  mountain  home. 

Well  we  recall  his  burning  words 

For  Freedom,  when,  with  banners  high, 
And  beating  drums,  and  bugle  peal, 

The  Hampshire  troops  marched  southward  by ! 

Marched  southward — telling  all  the  world 

To  place  on  Freedom's  brow  her  crown ; 
With  cannon's  boom,  and  flashing  steel, 

The  mountain  men  were  coming  down  ! 

And  when  Great  Freedom's  work  was  done, 
And  red  with  blood  were  land  and  sea, 


148  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

The  wide  earth  heard  the  crash  of  chainsr 
And  shouts  of  ransomed  millions,  free. 

But  of  the'  brave  who  came  not  back, 
Remember  that  their  lives  were  given 

To  save  a  nation's  priceless  life, 

The  noblest  cause  of  Earth  and  Heaven 

And  so  to-day,  with  speech  and  song, 
And  cannon's  voice,  and  chime  of  bells, 

We  come  with  joy  to  strew  afresh 

His  grave  with  Freedom's  immortelles  I 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


LETTERS,   INTERVIEWS,   AND   COMMENTS. 
[From  JOHN  G.  WHITTIER.] 

HAMPTON  FALLS,  N.  H.,  July  28,  1892. 
To  His  Excellency  Governor  Tuttle  : 

It  is  a  matter  of  very  great  regret  to  me  that  I  find  my 
self  unable  to  be  present  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of 
the  great  New  Hampshire  senator,  who  so  richly  deserves 
the  honor.  No  man  knows  better  than  myself  how  bravely 
and  wisely  he  bore  himself  in  the  revolt  and  conflict  which 
placed  his  state  permanently  on  the  side  of  freedom.  He 
broke  the  chains  of  party,  and  set  free  the  best  and  worthi 
est  of  the  Jeffersonian  Democracy  to  speak  and  vote  as 
their  better  instincts  and  consciences  inclined  them.  His 
victory  made  all  the  after  successes  possible  which  culmin 
ated  in  the  abolition  of  human  slavery  and  the  establish 
ment  of  the  Union  on  an  unmovable  basis. 

As  one  of  the  few  now  living  who  had  the  privilege  of 
acting  with  him  in  that  memorable  struggle,  I  am  glad  to 
bear  my  testimony  to  the  ability,  eloquence,  and  devotion 
to  principle  of  the  man  whose  place  in  the  Pantheon  of  his 
state  has  the  permanence  of  her  granite  mountains. 
I  am  truly  and  respectfully  thy  friend, 

JOHN  G,  WHITTIER.* 


*  Mr.  Wliittier  died  at  Hampton  Falls,  September  7,  1892,  and  was 
buried  on  the  10th  at  Amesbury,  Mass.  In  a  brief  but  impressive 
account  of  his  funeral,  by  Mrs.  Caroline  H.  Ball,  to  be  found  in  the 


152  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

[From  FREDERICK  DOUGLASS.] 

CEDAR  HILL,  ANACOSTIA,  D.  C.,  June  29, 1892. 
Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  would  gladly  obey  your  call  to  Con 
cord  on  the  3d  of  August.  The  occasion  stirs  my  heart  and 
memory.  No  statue  of  patriot,  statesman,  or  philanthropist 
of  our  times  will  convey  to  after-coming  generations  a  les 
son  of  moral  heroism  more  sublime  than  that  proposed  to 
be  unveiled  of  John  P.  Hale,  on  the  third  of  August.  I 
remember  well  the  man  and  his  works,  and  it  may  be  that 
I  can  be  present  and  bear  my  testimony  on  the  occasion  of 
the  unveiling,  but  I  am  not  now  in  a  condition  to  positively 
promise. 

Very  truly  yours, 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 


[From  NATHANIEL  S.  BERRY.] 

BRISTOL,  N.  H.,  July  30,  1892. 
G-ov.  Hiram  A.  Tuttle  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — As  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  I  shall 
be  able  to  meet  you  in  Concord  on  the  3d  of  August,  as 
invited,  allow  me  to  say  a  word  to  you  in  regard  to  my 
friendship  and  esteem  for  John  P.  Hale.  From  1818  to 


New  England  Magazine  for  January,  1893,  it  is  stated  that  John  and 
Abby  Hutchinson  (with  Mr.  Patton)  attended  the  quiet  Quaker  service, 
and  tenderly  sung  the  chant,  "  Close  his  eyes,  his  work  is  done.  Lay 
him  low." 

On  Mr.  Whittier's  80th  birthday,  December  17,  1887,  he  received  a 
picture  with  this  inscription,  "  John  P.  Hale  Chandler  sends  birthday 
greeting  to  Mr.  Whittier,  from  whom  the  boy,  like  his  grandfather, 
shall  learn  to  love  nature,  to  revere  humanity,  to  pity  the  down 
trodden,  and  to  trust  the  Eternal  Goodness."  Mr.  Whittier,  in 
acknowledgment,  wrote  on  the  margin  of  one  of  the  printed  cards 
which  he  sent  out  to  the  numerous  friends  who  had  congratulated 
him.  these  words:  "I  had  no  visitor  more  acceptable  on  the  17th  than 
the  grandson  of  my  old  friend,  John  P.  Hale.  I  thank  his  father  for 
sending  him.  I  am  truly  thy  friend,  John  G.  Whittier." 


APPENDIX.  153 

1840  I  voted  with  the  Democratic  party.  In  1840  I  was 
elected  a  delegate  and  attended  the  national  convention 
held  in  Baltimore,  and  there  learned,  from  the  demands 
made  by  a  leading  member  from  Tennessee  and  the  doings 
of  the  convention,  that  the  extension  and  strengthening  of 
the  institution  of  slavery  was  the  first  principle  acted  upon 
by  the  party  leaders,  and  not,  as  I  had  always  hoped  and 
believed,  the  desire  to  devise  and  carry  out  measures  by 
which  our  nation  should  be  freed  from  that  great  crime.  I 
then  said  that  I  could  not  any  longer  vote  to  aid  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  When  Mr.  Hale,  as  a  Democratic  member  of 
congress,  voted  against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  giving  his 
reasons  therefor,  I  thought  he  was  right,  and  when  in 
obedience  to  the  demands  of  Southern  leaders,  he  was 
denounced,  and  his  nomination  for  a  second  election  as  rep 
resentative,  which  had  been  made,  was  revoked  by  the 
party  leaders  of  this  state,  I  did  all  I  could  to  sustain  him 
and  his  action.  Soon  after,  I  consented  to  have  my  name 
used  as  a  candidate  for  governor  by  the  Liberty  or  Free 
Soil  party,  with  no  thought  of  ever  being  elected  to  the 
office,  but  I  did  receive  votes  enough  to  prevent  an  election 
by  the  people,  and  during  the  following  months  I  was 
waited  upon  by  Harry  Hibbard  and  other  leading  men  in 
the  Democratic  party,  who  assured  me  that  with  the  four 
teen  Liberty  or  Free-Soil  members  elected  to  the  state 
legislature  every  Democratic  member  would  vote  for  me  as 
United  States  senator,  rather  than  have  Mr.  Hale  elected, 
and  they  urged  me  time  and  again  before  the  legislature 
assembled  to  accept.  I  replied  that  I  would  not  consent, 
but  would  do  all  I  could  for  Mr.  Hale's  return  to  congress. 
No  person  in  this  state  did  more  to  forward  the  success  and 
triumph  of  the  Republican  party  than  Mr.  Hale,  and  I  am 
very  glad  that  his  statue  is  to  be  placed  in  the  state  house 
yard.  If  I  am  permitted  to  be  present  for  a  little  time 
during  the  unveiling,  it  will  be  very  gratifying  to  me. 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

N.  S.  BERRY. 


154  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

[From  A.  P.  PUTNAM.] 

CONCORD,  MASS.,  Aug.  5,  1892. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — From  the  circumstance  that  I  have 
recently  had  some  correspondence  with  you  about  certain 
genealogical  matters  in  which  we  were  alike  interested,  I 
dare  say  it  was  yourself  who  kindly  sent  to  me  a  copy  of 
yesterday's  New  Hampshire  Republican,  published  in  your 
city,  and  containing  a  full  report  of  the  proceedings  at  the 
unveiling  of  the  memorial  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  at  Con 
cord.  I  am  particularly  glad  at  receiving  such  an  account 
of  an  occasion  which  must  have  been  very  impressive,  as  it 
was  certainly  one,  also,  that  reflects  great  credit  upon  all 
who  had  to  do  with  it.  Senator  Chandler's  gift  to  the  state 
is  one  for  which  thousands  on  thousands  in  other  sections  of 
the  Union  besides  his  own  will  thank  him,  and  Colonel 
Hall's  address  is  a  noble  and  most  important  contribution 
to  the  history  of  the  anti-slavery  struggle.  All  the  speak 
ers  rose  to  the  hour,  and  one  reads  their  eloquent  words 
with  a  fresh  and  increased  appreciation  of  the  exalted  worth 
of  the  man  they  so  fitly  honored. 

The  old  Granite  State  has  had  an  abundant  share  of 
illustrious  names,  as  we  all  know,  but  I  do  not  recall  one  of 
them  that  seems  to  me  more  deserving  of  lasting  remem 
brance  and  praise  than  that  of  John  Parker  Hale.  It  re 
quired  a  vast  deal  of  moral  courage  to  withstand  and  fight, 
single-handed  as  it  were,  the  pro-slavery  oligarchy  and 
party,  there  in  New  Hampshire,  in  1845.  To  all  human 
seeming,  it  meant  political  ostracism  and  ruin.  Few  would 
have  ventured  the  contest,  even  for  dear  Liberty's  sake,  so 
proud  and  tyrannous  and  fierce  was  the  power  which  was 
then  in  rule.  But  the  man  from  Dover  was  not  only  a  true 
lover  of  Freedom  and  of  his  race,  but  he  was  also  one  who 
knew  no  fear,  and  was  perfectly  willing  and  ready  to  sacri 
fice  himself  for  a  just  and  holy  cause.  It  thrills  me,  even 
now,  to  recall  the  lofty  and  courageous  spirit  with  which  he 
threw  down  the  gauntlet,  and  went  before  the  people  with 
his  magnificent  appeal. 


APPENDIX.  155 

For  I  was  no  indifferent  or  remote  observer  of  what  was 
then  and  there  going  on.  In  1844  and  1845,  I  was  a  stu 
dent  at  Pembroke,  N.  H.  Party  spirit  then  ran  very  high, 
and  the  Polk  Democracy  was  as  arbitrary  as  it  was  all  pow 
erful.  The  boys  at  the  academy  entered  into  the  contro 
versies  and  excitements  of  the  time  with  earnest  zeal,  shar 
ing  in  due  proportion  the  names  and  sentiments  of  the 
various  organizations  that  divided  the  people.  It  was  a 
notable  epoch  when  "  Jack  Hale "  began  his  fight,  and  I 
well  remember  how  a  good  number  of  the  students  quickly 
sided  with  him,  and  how  stoutly  they  contended,  in  their 
own  way,  for  the  principles  he  represented,  and  for  himself 
as  the  leader  of  the  new,  independent  movement.  Colonel 
Hall,  in  his  exceedingly  interesting  and  admirable  address, 
gives  an  account  of  the  famous  encounter,  at  the  old  North 
church  in  Concord,  between  Mr.  Hale  and  Franklin  Pierce. 
It  was  but  a  few  miles  away,  and  some  of  us  students  went 
to  see  and  hear.  It  was,  indeed,  a  memorable  scene.  Not 
alone  a  very  large  number  of  the  citizens  of  Concord,  but 
hundreds  of  farmers  from  surrounding  towns  and  from  more 
distant  places,  crowded  to  listen  to  Freedom's  rising  orator 
and  defender.  In  later  years  it  was  my  good  fortune  to 
hear  him  speak  on  many  occasions,  but  I  never  heard  him 
when  he  appeared  to  better  advantage,  or  seemed  to  me 
abler  and  grander,  than  in  that  "battle  of  the  giants." 
After  the  two  hours'  speech  by  Mr.  Hale,  there  was  a  loud 
and  persistent  call  for  Mr.  Pierce  by  the  old  Democracy, 
and  presently  the  local  chief  of  his  party  came  forward  and 
mounted  the  rostrum.  His  address  occupied  about  as  much 
time  as  that  of  his  predecessor.  It  was  able,  pointed,  and 
aggressive,  having  a  tone  of  severity  quite  in  contrast  with 
the  excellent  spirit  of  the  other.  Pierce  was  pale,  excited, 
and  passionate,  more  or  less  frequently  having  to  stop  to 
cool  his  tongue  with  water,  though  it  had  no  perceptible 
effect  to  cool  his  rage.  I  sat  quite  near  the  stage,  so  that  I 
saw  and  heard  the  whole,  and  I  could  but  think  that  the 
very  clever  Concord  lawyer's  anger  was  a  little  intensified 


156  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

in  consequence  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Hale,  at  the  conclu 
sion  of  his  own  speech,  had  quickly  gathered  up  his  papers, 
folded  them  under  his  arm,  stepped  down  from  the  plat 
form,  and  taken  a  seat  in  one  of  the  front  pews,  where, 
with  a  calm  and  beaming  face,  and  in  a  most  imperturbable 
and  manly  spirit,  he  listened  attentively  to  his  antagonist's 
speech  to  the  very  end.  Of  course,  Pierce's  concluding 
words,  like  those  of  Hale,  were  followed  by  uproarious 
applause.  Then  it  was  that  cries  arose  for  the  latter  once 
more,  to  give  answer  to  the  attack  which  had  been  made 
upon  him.  It  was  a  brief  reply,  for  the  hour  was  getting 
late,  and  the  ground  had  been  well  covered  before.  Yet  it 
was  a  most  pertinent  and  effective  word.  I  never  knew  the 
man  to  be  more  eloquent.  Voice,  look,  manner,  thought, 
language,  and  all,  as  he  stood  there  on  the  seat  of  the  pew 
he  occupied  and  fronted  the  vast  assemblage,  went  right 
home  to  the  minds  and  hearts  of  his  hearers  in  such  wise 
that  it  was  evident  as  he  closed  that  he  had  captured  the 
audience.  The  enthusiasm  was  far  greater  for  him  than  for 
Pierce,  or  his  cause  or  party.  A  huge  swarm  of  people  fol 
lowed  him  as  he  emerged  from  the  meeting-house  and  pro 
ceeded  to  the  village,  full  of  admiration  for  the  man  and 
for  what  he  had  said  and  done. 

How  little  any  of  us  who  were  there  realized,  at  the  time, 
that  both  of  these  sons  of  New  Hampshire  were  at  no  dis 
tant  day  to  be  candidates  for  the  presidency,  and  that  one 
of  them  was  actually  to  be  elected  to  the  high  office !  It 
was  far  easier  to  so  divine  the  future  as  to  see  the  advanc 
ing  and  growing  hosts  of  Liberty,  with  John  P.  Hale  as  one 
of  its  bravest  and  most  gallant  champions  in  all  the  long 
and  tremendous  warfare.  That  he  was.  He  never  be 
trayed  the  sacred  interests  of  justice  and  right.  His  ser 
vice  to  humanity,  his  service  to  his  country,  was  heroic  and 
faithful  and  incalculable,  and  it  is  meet  that  his  statue 
should  rise  at  last  at  the  very  capital  of  the  state  that  gave 
him  birth. 

I  did  not  intend  to  write  so  much.     Taking  it  for  granted 


APPENDIX.  157 

that  you  sent  me  the  Republican  that  has  come  to  hand,  let 
me  thank  you  heartily  for  it.     I  remain 

Very  truly  yours, 

A.  P.  PUTNAM. 
HON.  GEO.  A.  RAMSDELL. 


[From  LARKIN  D.  MASON.] 

SOUTH  TAMWORTH,  N.  H.,  Aug.  5, 1892. 

DEAR  MR.  CHANDLER: — I  had  a  splendid  position  last 
Wednesday  to  hear  every  word  and  consider  every  sugges 
tion.  Notwithstanding  the  many  long  and  able  speeches,  I 
thought  possibly  there  were 'some  things  left  unsaid,  and  as 
a  gleaner  I  followed  the  reapers  and  picked  up  a  few  heads 
which  they  missed,  and  have  tied  them  up  in  a  bundle  and 
send  them  for  your  consideration. 

It  was  one  of  my  best  days  on  earth.  I  am  nearly 
through  with  this  life  and  hope  to  meet  you  and  all  the 
Hale  family,  and  all  the  faithful  soldiers  in  the  late  great 
moral  struggle,  and  I  would  not  object  to  have  Frederick 
Douglass  come  in  to  give  color  to  the  occasion. 

Very  truly, 
LARKIN  D.  MASON. 

MR.   MASON'S   "GLEANINGS." 

From  whatever  standpoint  we  look  back  upon  our  coun 
try's  history,  we  find  progress.  This  progress  the  great 
Brooklyn  divine  calls  evolution.  I  think  we  are  all  ready 
to  admit  that  society  does  not  naturally  drift  heavenward, 
as  a  tree  grows  up  in  nature,  but  it  is  always  more  or  less 
in  conflict  with  everything  that  advances  it  to  a  higher 
plane  of  life. 

Such  a  conflict  always  requires  personal  sacrifice  in  order 
to  ensure  victory.  These  great  conflicts  and  victories  have 
grown  out  of  individual  agonizing,  out  of  the  personal  con 
flicts  of  heroic  souls  with  the  powers  of  ignorance  and 


158  THE   HALE  STATUE. 

wrong,  of  noble  men  who  have  stepped  out  of  the  ruts  of 
organizations  and  exposed  themselves  to  calumny  and  cen 
sure  for  the  sake  of  the  good  they  might  do  to  society  and 
the  benefit  they  might  confer  upon  their  race.  And  it  is  a 
fact  familiar  to  us  all,  that  whenever  the  people  were  ready 
to  advance,  some  man  with  special  qualifications  for  the 
emergency  has  appeared  upon  the  stage. 

Probably  no  man  but  Washington  could  have  taken  so 
feeble  an  army,  so  poorly  equipped  and  supported,  and  have 
gained  our  independence.  No  man  but  Lincoln  could  have 
issued  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  at  the  time  he  did, 
and  have  been  sustained  in  it ;  and  perhaps  no  other  officer 
in  the  Union  army  could  have  subdued  the  Rebellion  with 
out  any  concession  or  compromise,  but  General  Grant. 

I  think  it  equally  certain  that  there  was  no  other  man 
except  John  P.  Hale  who  could  have  gone  into  the  United 
States  senate  as  early  as  1846  and  advocated  the  cause  of 
universal  liberty ;  standing  among  slaveholders  and  possi 
bly  duelists,  and  there,  without  faltering,  presenting  the 
evils  of  slavery  and  the  dangerous  encroachments  of  the 
whole  system  of  slavery,  and  afterward  invited  by  the  most 
radical  slaveholders  to  go  to  their  homes  and  spend  the 
Christmas  holidays  with  them. 

Mr.  Hale  never  made  an  unkind  expression  toward  his 
opponents,  but  always  extended  that  courtesy  which  won 
their  respect.  Mr.  Hale,  from  his  early  manhood  till  his 
death,  never  met  an  opponent  and  left  him  the  victor.  He 
treated  the  subject  under  discussion  with  such  seriousness 
that  he  seldom  failed  to  draw  tears  from  his  audience,  and 
yet,  if  occasion  called,  he  could  improvise  an  anecdote  that 
would  place  his  opponent  in  an  unenviable  position.  He 
could  never  be  hired,  coaxed,  or  driven  to  advocate  that 
which  he  thought  was  wrong,  or  to  hold  his  peace  when 
error  was  present. 

It  was  my  privilege,  as  early  as  1845,  to  take  my  team 
and  carry  him  from  one  appointment  to  another  among  the 
hills  of  Carroll  county.  He  went  forth  bearing  precious 


APPENDIX.  159 

seed.  He  lived  to  return  again  rejoicing,  bringing  his 
sheaves  with  him. 

When  Mr.  Hale  entered  the  political  contest,  slavery  had 
such  a  controlling  influence  in  this  nation  over  parties, 
presses,  and  pulpits,  that  it  required  nerve  to  enter  the  con 
test  against  it.  When  he  had  finished  his  work  not  a  slave 
rattled  his  fetters  or  clanked  his  chains. 

He  richly  deserved  the  epitaph  he  desired  to  be  read  by 
the  wife  of  his  bosom  and  the  children  of  his  love,  "  This 
man  sacrificed  place  and  honor  rather  than  bow  down  and 
worship  slavery." 

To  apply  a  sentiment  original  with  President  Lincoln, 
"  We  sincerely  regret  we  cannot  penetrate  his  resting  place 
and  bear  to  him  the  evidences  of  our  heartfelt  gratitude." 
I  rejoice  in  this  tribute,  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the 
noble  hero,  and  I  heartily  thank  the  distinguished  son  of 
New  Hampshire  for  this  appropriate  act,  and  I  thank  the 
great  God  for  putting  it  into  his  heart  to  do  it. 


[From  CHESTER  B.  JORDAN.] 

LANCASTER,  N.  H.,  Aug.  5,  1892. 

I  knew  much  of  Mr.  Hale,  and  greatly  admired  his  in 
trepid  spirit,  his  fearlessness  in  the  cause  of  right,  his  loy 
alty  to  his  convictions  and  to  his  country  and  her  best 
interests,  and  his  love  for  humanity  everywhere.  But  1 
want  the  record  where  my  little  boys,  when  they  become 
men,  can  know  something  of  the  first  and  staunchest  New 
Hampshire  defender  of  the  rights  and  liberty  of  man. 

CHESTER  B.  JORDAN. 


[From  CALEB  A.  WALL.] 

WORCESTER,  MASS.,  Aug.  2,  1892. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Daily  Monitor,  Concord,  N.  If.  : 

Exceedingly  regretting  I  cannot  attend  in  person  the  ex 
ercises   to-morrow,  in    tribute   to   the   memory  of   John  P. 


160  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

Hale,  I  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  express  by  letter 
something  of  my  gratification  that  such  a  tribute  is  to  be 
paid  to  one  so  worthy  the  admiration  of  the  friends  of  Free 
dom  all  over  the  country.  I  am  one  of  those  enthusiastic 
admirers  of  the  pioneers  in  the  anti-slavery  conflict,  who 
have  watched  their  course  from  the  beginning  with  great 
interest,  and  none  of  them  deserve  more  credit  for  boldness 
and  efficiency  in  speech  and  action  than  the  distinguished 
senator  from  New  Hampshire,  in  and  out  of  congress.  It 
was  my  good  fortune  to  hear  the  great  speech  he  made  in 
our  city  (then  town)  hall,  Oct.  13, 1846,  soon  after  his  elec 
tion  as  senator,  over  an  opposition  of  unexampled  note,  and 
the  report  of  that  speech  is  the  first  one  I  ever  made  in  my 
fifty  years'  experience  as  a  newspaper  man.  How  the 
echoes  of  that  speech  still  ring  in  my  ears !  It  was  some 
thing  after  the  style  of  his  reply  to  the  attacks  and  denun 
ciations  of  Franklin  Pierce,  Isaac  Hill,  and  other  champions 
of  the  slave  power  of  that  time. 

In  looking  over  the  files  of  newspapers  for  1845,  I  find  an 
item,  probably  contributed  by  myself,  containing  the  fol 
lowing  extract  from  a  speech  then  made  by  Mr.  Hale  in 
answer  to  his  antagonists  and  former  friends,  who  had  ex 
communicated  him  from  their  support  because  of  his  opposi 
tion  to  pro-slavery  measures : 

"In  conclusion,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  the 
measure  of  my  ambition  will  be  full,  if,  when  my  earthly 
career  shall  be  ended  and  my  bones  are  laid  beneath  the 
soil  of  New  Hampshire,  and  when  my  wife  and  children 
shall  repair  to  my  grave  to  drop  the  tear  of  affection  to  my 
memory,  they  may  read  on  my  tombstone,  *  He  who  lies 
beneath  surrendered  office,  place,  and  power  rather  than  bow 
down  and  worship  slavery  S  " 

These  were  indeed  fitting  words  with  which  to  close  that 
memorable  controversy,  which,  it  is  said,  lasted  all  night ; 
the  triumph  of  Hale  before  the  people,  over  the  myrmi 
dons  of  the  slave  oligarchy  in  the  persons  of  Pierce,  Hill, 
and  others. 

CALEB  A.  WALL. 


APPENDIX.  161 

[From  the  Worcester  Spy  of  July  31,  1892.] 

Mr.  Wall  then  referred  to  the  matter  of  the  dedication 
next  Wednesday,  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  of  the  monument  to 
that  eloquent  pioneer  champion  of  human  rights,  John  P. 
Hale,  the  first  Free  Soil  senator  in  congress,  and  Free  Soil 
candidate  for  president  in  1852.  A  well  deserved  tribute 
was  paid  to  Mr.  Hale,  for  his  fidelity,  boldness,  and  effective 
advocacy  of  the  cause  of  freedom  during  his  sixteen  years 
in  the  senate,  and  as  a  platform  speaker.  A  sketch  of  Mr. 
Hale's  powerful  speech  in  the  City  hall  in  Worcester, 
October  13,  1846,  after  his  first  election  as  United  States 
senator,  over  the  pro-slavery  Democracy  of  the  Granite 
State,  led  by  Franklin  Pierce,  was  read,  to  show  the  quality 
of  Mr.  Hale  as  a  speaker. 

Mr.  Wall  closed  his  eulogy  of  Mr.  Hale  by  reading  lines 
of  poetic  tribute  to  him  by  a  son  of  the  Granite  state,  in 
which  were  the  following  beautiful  stanzas,  expressive  of 
the  modest  wish  of  the  deceased  illustrious  champion  of 
human  rights : 

"  When  kind  affection  e'er  shall  place 
An  humble  shaft  above  my  grave, 
These  simple  words  are  all  I  ask — 
'  He  sought  to  help  the  helpless  slave.' 

"  He  lived  to  see  the  good  work  done, 

The  land  redeemed  from  slavery's  thrall; 
No  more  the  scourge  of  whips  and  chains, 
But  freedom  reigning  over  all." 


[From  JOHN  D.  LYMAN.] 

The  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  the  brilliant,  brainy,  and 
whole-souled  John  P.  Hale  reminds  me  of  my^first  vote  for 
member  of  congress.  I  have  never  since  seen  so  much 
interest,  or  excitement  so  intense,  about  the  election  ofAa 
member  of  the  national  house  of  representatives.  Hale  and 

Pierce  were  the  two   most  gallant  and  prominent  Demo- 
11 


162  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

cratic  leaders  at  this  time  in  the  state.  Hale  had  served 
one  term  in  congress,  and,  according  to  usage,  had  been 
re-nominated.  After  this  nomination  he  had  addressed  his 
celebrated  letter  to  his  constituents  in  opposition  to  the 
annexation  of  Texas  without  some  provision  against  slavery. 
A  convention,  managed  by  Pierce  and  other  leading  Demo 
crats,  had  been  called,  at  which  Hale's  nomination  had  been 
repudiated  and  John  Woodbury  nominated  in  his  place. 
New  Hampshire  had  not  then  obeyed  the  law  of  congress 
requiring  the  states  to  be  districted  for  congressmen,  and 
they  were  voted  for  on  a  general  ticket.  In  my  town,  Mil 
ton,  at  the  preceding  presidential  election  in  November,  the 
Polk  electors  had  received  forty-five  votes,  the  Clay  elect 
ors,  ninety-four,  and  the  Free  Soil  candidate,  twenty-seven. 
Hale's  letter  and  his  repudiation  inspired  the  Whig  leaders 
with  hope  and  enthusiasm,  rejoiced  the  Free  Soilers,  led 
away  a  part  of  the  Democrats,  and  enraged  the  others. 
These  last  named  denounced  Hale  in  language  more  vigor 
ous  than  polite  as  a  renegade  and  traitor.  All  were  earnest. 
My  political  views  were  largely  centered  in  love  of  protec 
tion,  the  "American  System"  as  advocated  by  Clay,  Web 
ster,  and  other  famous  statesmen  of  that  and  earlier  days, 
and  in  my  hatred  of  human  slavery. 

I  did  not  consider  Hale  sound  on  the  question  of  protec 
tion,  and  disliked  his  opposition  to  the  West  Point  Military 
academy,  his  support  of  James  K.  Polk,  pledged  to  the 
pro-slavery  schemes  of  the  South,  and  his  opposition  to  the 
law  of  congress  requiring  the  election  of  members  of  con 
gress  by  districts.  But  on  the  other  hand,  I  far  more  dis 
liked  the  idea  of  his  being  defeated  for  doing  right  in  refus 
ing  to  further  bow  down  to  the  domineering  and  wicked 
slave  power. 

When  our  leading  Whigs  found  me  electioneering  for 
Hale,  their  appeals  for  me  to  stick  to  the  Whigs  were  the 
most  earnest  and  intense  political  entreaties  I  have  ever 
received.  It  seemed  that  they  could  not  give  me  up.  So 
provoked  were  they  that  for  several  years  they  defeated  me 


APPENDIX.  163 

whenever  my  friends  nominated  me  for  any  office.  I  need 
not  say  that  my  active  work  for  Hale  disgusted  the  regular 
Democrats,  for  they  hated  him  with  a  newer  and  hotter 
hatred  than  they  did  their  old  antagonists,  the  Whigs. 

But  Milton  did  well  that  day,  for  Woodbury  received  only 
thirty-one  votes,  while  Hale  received  seventy-three,  outrun 
ning  in  this  strong  Whig  town,  all  other  congressional  can 
didates. 

Going  home  to  vote  in  1853,  I  was  greatly  surprised  at 
being  elected  representative,  for  the  town  had  never  elected 
so  young  a  man,  and  I  had  not  heard  my  name  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  office.  All  shades  and  grades  of  the 
opposition  in  the  house  that  year,  I  think,  numbered  about 
seventy-nine,  with  eleven  Democratic  and  one  opposition 
senator.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  aroused 
the  indignation  of  the  free  states  before  the  election  of 
1854.  To  the  remarkable  legislature  of  that  year  I  was 
elected,  running,  I  think,  some  forty  votes  ahead  of  our 
state  ticket.  This  session  of  1854  was  to  the  Democrats 
what  Gettysburg  was  to  the  rebels.  Pierce  was  president. 
The  able  Charles  G.  Atherton,  known  as  "  Gag  "  Atherton, 
had  died,  and  Moses  Norris's  term  would  expire  the  next 
March,  thus  leaving  the  charming  mannered  and  yielding 
president  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones  of  the 
forces  of  liberty  and  slavery.  The  opposition  in  this  legis 
lature  consisted  of  Whigs,  Free  Soilers,  and  Independent 
Democrats,  who  united  upon  Mason  W.  Tappan  for  speaker, 
and  we  then  and  now  believe  that  we  would  have  elected 
him  but  for  from  one  to  three  traitors  in  our  ranks,  who 
enabled  Frank  R.  Chase  to  be  elected  without  a  vote  to 
spare. 

A  disappointed  Democrat  from  Newington  voted  scatter 
ing.  The  election  of  two  senators  was  the  great  absorbing 
object  of  the  Democrats,  and  to  defeat  these  elections,  and 
keep  the  senatorial  seats  vacant  till  the  next  year,  when  the 
opposition  felt  sure  they  could  fill  them  with  liberty-loving 
men,  was  the  great  object  of  the  opposition.  So  intense  a 


164  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

strain  for  so  many  days  I  have  never  since  felt.  The  long 
time  dominant  Democracy,  backed  by  the  power  of  a 
national  Democratic  administration  and  the  slave  power, 
with  a  New  Hampshire  president,  exerted  its  utmost  power 
of  persuasion  and  other  arts  in  vain.  It  was  one  continuous 
strain.  Generally  a  caucus  every  night,  with  a  statement  of 
every  member's  whereabouts.  One  of  our  men  went  home 
one  night,  and  bidding  his  dying  wife  a  last  good-bye  hast 
ened  back  to  vote.  Who  can  look  back  upon  that  session 
and  not  feel  proud  of  New  Hampshire !  George  W.  Nes- 
mith  was  our  manager-in-chief,  Daniel  Clark  our  eloquent 
exhorter,  and  Mason  W.  Tappan  and  others  our  earnest 
field  marshals.  Honored  and  lamented  leaders  !  Thus  by 
earnest  labor  were  our  senatorial  seats  saved  to  be  filled  at 
the  next  session  by  John  P.  Hale  and  James  Bell.  Thirty- 
eight  years  have  passed  since  that  eventful  session,  but  in 
all  these  years  no  lover  of  slavery  or  sympathizer  with 
rebellion  has  sat  in  the  national  senate  as  a  representative 
of  New  Hampshire. 

Since  the  advent  of  our  Saviour  has  there  ever  been  any 
other  thirty-eight  years  so  crowded  and  crowned  with 
events  so  momentous  and  progressive  ? 

J.  D.  LYMAN. 


NEWSPAPER  INTERVIEWS. 

[From  The  Monitor,  July  30,  1892.] 

Hon.  Sylvester  Dana,  of  this  city,  was  intimately  ac 
quainted  with  the  late  John  P.  Hale.  He  was  associated 
with  him  politically,  and  was  very  close  to  him  in  social 
relations.  The  invitation  upon  which  the  late  Mr.  Hale 
visited  Concord,  and  made  his  famous  speech  in  the  Old 
North  church  on  election  day,  June  5,  1845,  was  written  by 
Judge  Dana.  It  was  signed  by  six  prominent  citizens,  who 
had  previously  acted  with  Mr.  Hale  politically.  Large 


APPENDIX.  165 

hand-bills  were  posted  in  Concord  and  vicinity,  giving 
notice  of  the  meeting,  ending  with  the  prophetic  stanza, 
afterwards  so  well  fulfilled, 

"Truth,  crushed  to  earth,  shall  rise  again, 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

The  judge  remembers  distinctly  to  have  seen  Mr.  Hale  as 
he  entered  the  church  edifice.  He  was  escorted  by  the  late 
James  Peverly,  a  resident  of  this  city,  then  a  prominent 
trader  here  and  a  very  estimable  gentleman. 

The  house  was  crowded,  the  legislature  having  adjourned 
to  allow  members  to  attend.  The  Whigs  had  previously 
held  a  convention  in  the  building,  and  the  platform  erected 
for  the  purposes  of  it  still  remained.  It  was  from  this  plat 
form  that  Hale  made  his  memorable  speech.  He  was  not 
introduced  to  the  audience,  but  immediately  upon  his  arrival 
came  forward  and  began  his  remarks.  The  newspapers 
and  documents  to  which  he  made  reference  were  wrapped 
in  a  large  red  silk  handkerchief.  He  spoke  with  great 
earnestness  and  force,  and  was  greeted  with  frequent  ap 
plause.  His  peroration  was  especially  cheered.  He  occu 
pied  more  than  two  hours,  and  was  listened  to  throughout 
with  intense  attention. 

As  Judge  Dana  remembers  Mr.  Hale  on  that  day,  he 
was  a  rotund,  well-proportioned  man,  weighing  more  than 
two  hundred  pounds,  symmetrically  and  strongly  built ; 
hands.ome  and  prepossessing  in  appearance.  He  had  a 
smooth-shaved  face,  and  a  powerful  and  persuasive  voice. 
His  gestures  were  graceful  and  frequent,  and  he  seemed  to 
be  thoroughly  absorbed  in  the  great  issue  that  he  so  ably 
discussed.  His  subject  was  the  vindication  of  his  vote 
against  the  annexation  of  Texas  as  a  slave  state  to  the 
Union.  Hale  took  strong  ground  against  such  annexation. 
It  was  plain  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  that  Mr.  Hale 
had  perfect  command  of  himself,  and  perfect  command  of 
his  subject. 

When  he  had  concluded  his  speech,  he  came  down  from 


166  THE  HALE  STATUE. 

the  platform  and  took  a  seat  in  a  pew  immediately  in  front. 
Then  the  late  Franklin  Pierce,  afterward  president,  as 
cended  the  platfotm  and  answered  Mr.  Hale,  speaking 
something  over  an  hour.  Pierce,  as  is  well  known,  was  a 
polished  orator,  and  represented  his  side  of  the  case  as  well 
as  any  man  could  do  it.  He  urged  all  available  arguments 
in  justification  of  the  annexation,  and  criticised  Mr.  Hale's 
course  severely.  When  he  had  concluded,  Hale  stood  upon 
the  seat  where  he  had  been  sitting,  and  facing  the  audience, 
replied.  He  spoke  perhaps  five  minutes,  his  remarks  being, 
as  Judge  Dana  says,  the  most  eloquent  that  he  ever  heard 
fall  from  human  lips.  His  closing  sentence,  as  Judge  Dana 
remembers  it,  was  as  follows :  "When  filial  affection  shall 
erect  an  humble  monument  to  show  where  rest  my  mortal 
remains,  I  wish  upon  it  no  other  epitaph  than  this :  Here 
lies  one  who  surrendered  office,  place,  and  power,  rather 
than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery." 

He  had  the  sympathy  of  a  sincere  following,  and  those 
who  heard  him  then  were  not  surprised  that  he  should 
become  chief  of  the  great  anti-slavery  leaders. 

Although  the  meeting  was  largely  attended,  there  were 
many  people  in  Concord  who  were  busy  on  election  day, 
and  were  unable  to  hear  the  great  orators,  Hale  and  Pierce, 
and  Mr.  Peverly  and  others  thought  it  desirable  that  Mr. 
Hale  should  visit  Concord  again  when  people  could  have  a 
better  opportunity  to  listen  to  him.  It  was  arranged  that 
he  should  be  present  on  the  afternoon  of  the  next  Thanks 
giving  day  in  November.  He  came  then,  and  delivered  an 
address  in  the  old  court  house  (town  hall),  which  was 
packed  to  overflowing.  It  was  a  very  able  speech  that  he 
made,  and  is  remembered  by  many  of  our  citizens. 

Hardly  had  this  second  meeting  closed  when  Carlos  G. 
Hawthorne,  of  Hopkinton,  sought  the  statesman,  and  ac 
quainted  him  with  the  fact  that  arrangements  had  been 
made  for  a  meeting  in  Hopkinton,  to  be  addressed  by  him 
that  evening.  The  air  was  chilly,  and  Mr.  Hale  was  wet 
with  perspiration  from  his  efforts  in  the  town  hall  here,  but 


APPENDIX.  167 

he  consented  to  accompany  Mr.  Hawthorne,  which  he  did 
in  a'  chaise,  and  addressed  a  large  and  intelligent  audience 
in  the  old  Academy  hall  in  Hopkinton  village. 

The  interest  in  Concord  was  such  that  Judge  Dana  and 
others  chartered  a  four-horse  stage-coach,  and  attended  the 
meeting  there. 

His  remarks  at  Hopkinton,  Judge  Dana  says,  were  in 
some  respects  even  more  impressive  than  those  made  at 
Concord,  his  speech  there  dealing  more  especially  with  the 
moral  aspects  of  the  great  question  of  human  slavery. 


[From  The  Monitor,  August  2,  1892.] 

Hon.  Henry  P.  Rolfe,  of  this  city,  now  beyond  three- 
score-and-ten,  is  blessed  with  a  remarkable  memory.  For 
many  years  he  was  prominent  in  the  practice  of  his  pro 
fession,  and  in  the  politics  of  New  Hampshire.  Associated 
personally,  as  he  was,  with  many  of  the  central  figures  dur 
ing  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  our  state,  his  remin 
iscences  are  very  valuable.  In  conversation  to-day,  he 
spoke  very  feelingly  on  the  subject  that  just  now  is  being 
revived  so  pleasantly  and  profitably,  that  of  the  work  and 
worth  of  the  late  John  P.  Hale,  whom  the  splendid  statue 
to  be  unveiled  in  the  state  house  park  next  week  is  to  com 
memorate.  Having  paid  a  tribute  to  Senator  Chandler  for 
his  generous  appreciation  of  Mr.  Hale,  Mr.  Rolfe's  talk  was 
caught  stenographically,  and  with  his  permission  made 
available,  as  follows : 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1842,  during  my 
vacation  while  fitting  for  college  at  New  Hampton,  I 
attended  court  one  week  at  Laconia,  then  Meredith  Bridge. 
His  Honor  Judge  Tebbetts  presided.  Hon.  Henry  Y. 
Simpson  and  Hon.  Thomas  Cogswell  were  side  judges.  I 
had  never  been  in  a  court  room  before,  and  everything  that 
transpired  was  to  me  novel.  I  saw  there,  for  the  first  time, 
John  Parker  Hale,  then  in  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Dover. 
He  was  thirty-six  years  of  age,  had  been  United  States 


168  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

district-attorney  seven  years,  having  been  appointed  by 
General  Jackson  in  1834,  and  afterward  removed  by  Presi 
dent  Tyler  in  1841.  He  was  the  finest  appearing  man  I 
ever  beheld,  about  five  feet,  eleven  inches  tall,  neatly 
dressed,  of  perfect  form,  hair  black  and  straight,  face  some 
what  florid,  and  a  countenance  beaming  all  over  with  emo 
tion  and  expression,  and  his  manners  were  elegant. 

I  heard  him  try  several  cases  before  the  jury.  When  the 
court  was  not  in  session,  I  kept  as  near  him  as  I  could,  to 
hear  all  he  said.  When  he  addressed  the  court  his  lan 
guage  was  refined,  and  his  arguments  to  the  jury  could 
hardly  be  resisted.  Everything  he  said,  everything  he  did, 
seemed  to  me  to  carry  an  irresistible  charm  with  it.  I 
heard  him  say  out  of  court  that  Judge  Tebbetts  was  the 
most  perfect  exemplar  of  a  trial  judge  that  he  had  ever  seen 
upon  the  bench.  He  said  to  him  during  a  trial,  where  the 
judge  ruled  against  him,  "  Your  honor  holds  the  law  differ 
ently  from  what  I  understand  it,  but  1  bow  with  perfect 
respect  to  your  honor's  decision,"  at  the  same  time  bowing 
with  a  graceful  dignity  and  urbanity  which  must  have  de 
lighted  the  court.  It  certainly  delighted  me.  He  tried  a 
case  before  the  jury  wherein  a  brother  of  General  Tuttle,  of 
Meredith,  was  a  party,  and  there  were  two  witnesses  in  the 
case  by  the  name  of  Chattel.  They  testified  against  his 
client's  interests,  and  in  his  argument  he  spoke  of  them  in 
a  most  sarcastic  way  as  "  these  living  Chattels." 

William  C.  Clarke  was  then  practising  at  Meredith 
Bridge.  He  was  afterward  attorney-general  of  the  state 
for  several  years,  possessing  as  fine  a  personal  appearance 
as  one  would  wish  to  look  upon,  but  Mr.  Hale  eclipsed  him 
entirely.  The  next  spring  after  this  Mr.  Hale  was  elected 
a  member  of  congress,  and  in  1844,  Polk  was  elected  presi 
dent,  and  President  Tyler  was  moving  every  available  force 
to  annex  Texas ;  and,  to  the  surprise  of  many,  Mr.  Hale 
opposed  the  annexation.  He  served  two  years  as  a  member 
of  congress,  and  when  nominated  for  a  second  term  wrote 
his  constituents  that  if  they  wanted  a  representative  to  vote 


APPENDIX.  169 

for  the  annexation  of  Texas  they  must  choose  another  man. 
Another  man  was  nominated,  and  Mr.  Hale  joined  issue 
with  the  Democracy.  He  was  defeated.  Then  followed 
the  great  contest  in  New  Hampshire  which  made  Hale  im 
mortal.  The  history  of  that  contest  is  known  everywhere, 
and  John  P.  Hale  is  known  as  the  gallant  political  pioneer 
who  first  assaulted  the  bulwarks  of  American  slavery.  He 
went  before  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  in  the  campaign 
of  1845,  and  in  that  of  1846,  and  won  in  the  last.  He  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  legislature  from  Dover,  speaker  of 
the  house,  and  United  States  senator  for  six  years  from 
March  4,  1847. 

In  June,  1845,  during  the  session  of  the  legislature,  in 
the  Old  North  church,  came  off  the  contest  between  him 
and  Gen.  Franklin  Pierce,  the  most  renowned  of  any  in  the 
country,  except  that  in  1858  between  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
and  Abraham  Lincoln. 

In  the  year  1872,  being  then  in  Dover  on  business  as 
United  States  district-attorney,  I  was,  by  Mr.  Joshua  Var- 
ney,  in  his  tailor's  shop,  introduced  to  Mr.  Hale  as  one  who 
formerly  occupied  the  office  I  then  held.  He  was  at  lei 
sure  and  so  was  I,  for  the  afternoon.  I  referred  to  the  time 
and  the  circumstances  when  I  first  saw  him  at  Meredith 
Bridge.  He  at  once  became  very  communicative,  told  me 
of  his  ministry  in  Spain,  his  entrance  into  the  United  States 
senate,  and  other  incidents  ;  but  the  interesting  and  thrilling 
part  of  his  conversation  was  in  regard  to  his  meeting  in 
Concoi'd  in  the  Old  North  church.  He  had  been  invited  by 
some  one, — Judge  Dana,  I  think, — to  come  to  Concord,  and 
make  a  speech  to  vindicate  himself.  I  will  tell  the  story  as 
he  told  it,  as  near  as  I  can  remember  it. 

"  I  had  been  invited  to  go  to  Concord  during  the  session 
of  the  legislature  and  make  a  speech  to  the  citizens  there. 
I  was  little  acquainted  with  the  people  in  that  vicinity.  I 
knew  of  George  G.  Fogg,  James  Peverly,  Jefferson  Noyes, 
Sylvester  Dana,  and  a  few  others.  I  accepted  the  invita 
tion,  and  when  I  reached  Concord  I  was  met  upon  the 


170  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

arrival  of  the  stage  coach  by  Mr.  Peverly,  Mr.  Fogg,  and 
two  or  three  others.  They  waited  upon  me  to  the  house 
north  of  the  American  House,  and  put  me  in  a  room  on  the 
back  side  of  the  house  that  looked  out  on  a  stage  stable  and 
stage  yard,  and  left  me,  telling  me  when  the  time  for  the 
meeting  should  arrive  they  would  call  for  me.  When  the 
time  for  dinner  arrived,  I  was  called  and  went  down  to  din 
ner,  no  one  speaking  to  me  or  seeming  to  know  me.  No 
one  called  upon  me  till  the  time  for  the  meeting.  Then 
Mr.  Fogg,  Mr.  Peverly,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  Noyes  called  for 
me.  When  I  came  out  on  the  street  it  was  still  as  Sunday, 
not  a  person  to  be  seen  except  the  three  men  that  were 
with  me,  not  a  carriage  anywhere  in  sight.  We  walked 
along  in  silence ;  the  gentlemen  with  me  said  nothing,  and 
I  said  little  to  them.  I  was  gloomy  and  despondent,  but 
kept  my  thoughts  to  myself.  As  we  turned  around  the 
corner  of  the  old  Fiske  store,  and  I  looked  up  and  saw  the 
crowd  at  the  doors  of  the  old  church  surging  to  get  in,  the 
people  above  and  below  hanging  out  of  the  windows,  first  a 
great  weight  of  responsibility  oppressed  me,  and  in  a 
moment  more  an  inspiration  came  upon  me,  as  mysterious  as 
the  emotions  of  the  new  birth.  I  walked  into  the  densely 
crowded  house  as  calm  and  collected  and  self-assured  as  it 
was  possible  for  a  man  to  be.  I  felt  that  the  only  thing  I 
then  wanted — an  opportunity — had  come,  and  I  soon  gath 
ered  that  great  crowd  into  my  arms,  and  swayed  it  about  as 
the  gentle  winds  do  the  fields  of  ripening  grain.  That 
inspiration  never  for  a  moment  left  me.  It  followed  me 
over  the  state,  during  the  ensuing  campaign,  into  the  senate 
of  the  United  States,  remained  with  me  there,  and  sub 
sided  only  when  the  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln 
declared  that  in  this  land  the  sun  should  rise  upon  no  bond 
man  and  set  upon  no  slave  ;  and  now  when  I  turn  my  eyes 
heavenward,  I  can  in  imagination  see  hanging  out  from  the 
battlements  of  Heaven  the  broken  shackles  of  four  millions 
of  slaves,  which  for  nearly  twenty  years  I  did  all  in  my 
power  to  rend. 


APPENDIX.  171 

"  When  I  entered  the  senate  I  supposed  every  man's 
hand  would  be  against  me,  but  I  very  soon  found  a  friend 
in  Thomas  H.  Benton.  I  was  one  day  speaking  in  the  sen 
ate  on  a  subject  I  was  not  so  familiar  with  as  I  ought  to 
have  been,  when  one  of  the  pages  handed  me  a  note.  I 
looked  at  it  and  found  it  was  from  Mr.  Benton,  containing 
just  the  important  information  I  needed,  and  ever  after  this 
when  I  was  speaking  he  would  watch  me,  and  if  he  thought 
I  needed  any  facts  he  would  come  behind  me  and  post  me 
up,  or  send  the  information  on  a  slip  of  paper  which  a  page 
would  place  on  the  desk  before  me ;  and  what  is  most  singu 
lar,  I  never  knew  him  to  make  a  mistake,  and  I  relied  upon 
him  as  confidently  as  though  I  were  reading  it  out  of  a 
book." 

In  1851,  Mr.  Hale  and  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  were  coun 
sel  for  the  men  who  were  tried  for  the  rescue  of  Shadrach, 
a  fugitive  slave  in  Boston.  He  was  taken  from  the  United 
States  marshal  and  his  posse,  carried  to  a  place  of  safety, 
and  finally  transported  on  the  underground  railroad  to 
Canada.  Mr.  Hale  and  Mr.  Dana  made  an  able  and  tena 
cious  defence,  and  no  convictions  were  obtained.  Several 
years  after,  during  the  war,  Mr.  Dana  was  in  one  of  the 
rural  towns  near  Boston,  when  a  gentleman  accosted  him 
with  much  cordiality,  saying,  "  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Dana?  " 
Mr.  Dana  returned  the  salutation  with  much  civility,  and 
said  to  him,  "  Sir,  you  have  the  advantage  of  me.  I  think 
I  have  met  you  somewhere  before  ;  your  face  is  somewhat 
familiar,  but  I  cannot 'recall  your  name."  "It  is  not 
strange,"  the  gentleman  replied,  "  for  I  do  not  think  that  I 
have  met  you  since  you  and  Mr.  Hale  defended  the  rescuers 
of  Shadrach,  the  fugitive  slave.  My  name  is  Mr.  Blank. 
I  was  a  member  of  the  jury  who  tried  them."  "Indeed," 
said  Mr.  Dana,  "  I  am  delighted  to  see  you."  "  I  think," 
said  the  gentleman,  "  I  never  saw  two  gentlemen  more 
anxious  than  you  and  Mr.  Hale  were  about  the  safety  of 
your  clients."  "  Certainly  we  were,"  replied  Mr.  Dana. 
"  But,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  I  did  not  feel  the  least 


172  THE   HALE  STATUE. 

anxiety  in  the  world.  I  saw  from  the  beginning  that  there 
was  no  danger  of  your  clients'  conviction."  "Why  not?" 
said  Mr.  Dana.  "  Because,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  I  was  the 
man  who  took  Shadrach  at  the  door  of  the  court  house,  put 
him  into  a  cab,  and  took  him  to  a  place  of  safety  at  Mr. 
Blank's  in  old  Concord,  and  I  concluded  from  the  beginning 
of  the  trial  that  there  was  no  danger  of  those  other  fellows 
being  convicted  while  I  was  on  the  jury." 

This  story  was  told  to  me  by  Hon.  Albert  R.  Hatch,  of 
Portsmouth,  and  in  1886  I  told  the  story  to  Judge  Gray  at 
Boston,  and  he  confirmed  the  truth  of  it,  for  he  said  he  had 
repeatedly  heard  Mr.  Dana  himself  tell  the  storysubstan- 
tially  as  I  have  told  it. 


As  Mr.  Parker  Pillsbury,  of  this  city,  one  of  the  very 
foremost  of  the  anti-slavery  leaders,  stopped  a  moment  to 
look  deferentially  at  the  Hale  statue  as  it  was  being  put  in 
position,  his  mind  must  have  filled  with  memories  of  that 
important  epoch  in  our  national  history  in  which  he  him 
self  was  so  intensely  interested  and  took  so  active  a  part. 
He  sacrificed  almost  everything  to  the  cause  of  freedom, 
and  among  the  able  lecturers  who  canvassed  the  country 
there  was  no  more  vigorous  thinker,  more  forcible  writer, 
or  more  devout  devotee  to  the  interests  of  humanity. 

Mr.  Pillsbury  is  comparatively  little  known  to  the  rising 
generation,  but  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  characters  in 
the  great  American  crisis  wherein-  Mr.  Hale  figured  so  con 
spicuously.  Mr.  Pillsbury  admired  him,  and  respected  him, 
and  loved  him,  and  as  he  stood  there  gazing  upon  the  gran 
ite  and  the  bronze  that  are  to  perpetuate  his  honor,  he 
seemed  absorbed  in  deep  and  tender  thoughts. 

This  remarkable  man  was  found  soon  afterward  in  his 
scholarly,  well-conned  library,  at  his  home  on  School  street, 
this  city.  Over  his  head,  as  the  modest  minister,  editor, 
lecturer,  and  statesman  sat  there,  hung  an  excellent  portrait 
of  Wendell  Phillips.  On  one  side  was  a  copy  of  the  famous 


APPENDIX.  173 

engraving  entitled  "  Waiting  for  the  Hour,"  representing 
the  affecting  scene  of  slaves  gathered  together,  one  of  their 
number  holding  a  watch,  anxiously  waiting  for  the  minute 
to  come  when  by  the  emancipation  proclamation  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  they  were  to  be  free. 

Not  far  from  it  hung  a  printed  advertising  poster,  char 
acteristic  of  the  days  when  human  beings  were  subjects  of 
barter  and  sale  and  every-day  traffic.  It  reads  as  follows  : 

RAFFLE. 

Mr.  Joseph  Jennings  respectfully  informs  his  friends  and  the  public 
that  at  the  request  of  many  acquaintances  he  has  been  induced  to  pur 
chase  from  Mr.  Osborne,  of  Missouri,  the  celebrated  dark  bay  horse, 
"  Star,"  aged  5  years,  square  trotter  and  warranted  sound  ;  with  a  new 
light  trotting  buggy  and  harness  ;  also  the  dark,  stout  mulatto  girl 
"  Sarah,"  aged  about  20  years,  general  house  servant,  valued  at  $900, 
and  guaranteed,  and  will  be  raffled  for  at  4  o'clock  p.  m.,  Feb.  1st,  at 
the  selection  hotel  of  the  subscribers. 

The  above  is  as  represented,  and  those  persons  who  may  wish  to  en 
gage  in  the  usual  practice  of  raffling,  will,  I  assure  them,  be  perfectly 
satisfied  with  their  destiny  in  this  offer. 

The  whole  is  valued  at  just  what  it  is  worth  ;  $1,500 ;  1500  chances 
at  one  dollar  each. 

The  raffle  will  be  conducted  by  gentlemen  selected  by  interested 
persons.  Five  days  will  be  allowed  to  complete  the  raffle.  Both  of 
the  above  described  can  be  seen  at  my  store,  No.  78  Common  street 
(New  Orleans),  second  door  from  Camp,  at  from  9  o'clock  a.  m.  to 
2  p.  m. 

First  throw  to  take  the  first  choice ;  last  throw  remaining  prize ; 
and  the  fortunate  winners  will  pay  $20  each  for  the  refreshments  fur 
nished  on  the  occasion. 

P.  S.  No  chances  recognized  unless  paid  for  previous  to  the  com 
mencement. 

JOSEPH  JENNINGS. 

Mr.  Pillsbury  said : 

"  I  came  into  the  movement  in  1840,  just  at  the  time 
when  the  country  was  agitated  with  Texas.  When  the 
annexation  of  Texas  came  before  congress,  Mr.  Hale  was 
the  only  Democrat  who  voted  against  it.  I  was  in  the 
whirl,  and  Nathaniel  P.  Rogers,  editor  of  the  Herald  of 


174  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

Freedom,  had  been  before  that  time,  and  there  was  a  dis 
satisfaction  between  him  and  some  of  the  society,  and  he 
dropped  the  paper,  so  I  had  to  pick  it  up  out  of  the  mud 
and  dust,  and  carry  it  on.  I  remember  very  well  Mr. 
Hale's  course  and  position.  I  was  editing  the  paper  at  the 
time,  and  lecturing  a  great  deal  besides,  and  he  was  rather 
our  text,  and  I  kept  him  before  the  people  all  I  possibly 
could. 

"Of  course  there  was  a  fragment  of  the  Whig  party  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  they  saw  their  opportunity,  and  were 
pretty  friendly  to  us,  and  so  we  had  the  support  of  New 
Hampshire,  which  had  been  almost  unanimously  Demo 
cratic.  We  three,  Stephen  S.  Foster,  the  editor,  Nathaniel 
P.  Rogers,  and  myself,  were  all  of  us  Non-Resistants  from 
principle,  and  the  other  two,  Rogers  and  Foster,  officers  of 
the  Non-Resistant  society.  We  were  all  of  us  non-voters 
from  principle,  and  we  said,  and  we  had  reason  to  say,  that 
the  reign  of  Democracy  was  nearing  its  end  in  the  state. 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  we  three,  non-voters 
though  we  were,  undoubtedly  had  much  more  to  do  with 
the  changing  of  the  politics  than  any  other  three  persons  in 
it.  In  four  years  we  had  shaken  the  state  pretty  clean  of 
that  kind  of  Democracy,  and  John  P.  Hale  was  sent  to  the 
senate  and  kept  there  eighteen  years,  whereas,  he  was  only 
in  the  house  as  a  Democrat  when  they  cast  him  out. 

"  At  that  time  I  wrote  him  a  letter.  He  was  then  in 
Washington.  I  told  him  that  his  course  would  be  approved 
by  the  people  of  New  Hampshire,  and  that  I  had  been  over 
the  state  so  far,  and  understood  so  well  the  feeling,  that  I 
felt  warranted  in  saying  to  him  that  he  would  be  sustained, 
and  I  hoped  he  would  not  falter.  It  happened  that  just 
then  the  Hutchinson  family,  who  were  famous  singers,  were 
in  Washington  giving  concerts,  and  he  invited  them  to  din 
ner,  and  read  them  this  letter  as  part  of  the  entertainment. 
They  were  greatly  pleased  with  it,  '  For,'  said  they,  '  we, 
too,  are  in  the  state  and  among  the  people  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  we  know  as  well  as  he.'  That,  perhaps,  is  the 


APPENDIX.  175 

best  incident  I  can  think  of,  for  I  was  editing  and  lecturing 
both,  and  running  wherever  there  was  a  chance  to  have 
anything  done.  In  that  letter  you  got  pretty  much  rny 
whole  temper  and  spirit.  I  wanted  to  give  him  a  full  view 
of  it,  and  he  deemed  it  of  sufficient  consequence  in  inviting 
them  there  to  dinner  to  read  it  as  a  part  of  the  dessert,  and 
they  were  very  much  pleased  with  it. 

"I  was  not  here  when  he  made  his  speech.  I  began  in 
1840  on  my  mission  of  anti-slavery,  and  I  never  left  off 
until  the  last  slave  was  free.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to 
have  had  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Hale  in  my  life.  My 
wife  once  had  a  little  correspondence  with  him  on  account 
of  the  Woman's  Anti-Slavery  society. 

"  I  have  n't  any  recollections  of  Mr.  Hale  that  would  be 
worthy  your  noticing,  only  that  whenever  I  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  hearing  him,  I  improved  it.  I  heard  him  in 
Massachusetts  in  two  or  three  places,  but  never  here.  He 
stumped  the  country  a  great  deal  with  very  good  success. 
The  slaveholders  could  never  get  angry  with  him.  They 
got  angry  with  Charles  Sumner,  and  tried  to  kill  him,  but 
Hale  always  kept  them  good-natured.  He  was  a  good  deal 
like  Tom  B.  Reed.  Hale  had  that  same  vein  of  humor, 
rather  cold,  but  always  keen  and  effective.  But  I  had  per 
sonal  acquaintance  with  hardly  any  of  the  public  men  and 
grandees.  I  had  two  years  and  a  half  in  England,  or  at 
least  in  Europe.  I  did  accidentally  once  meet  the  queen, 
and  called  on  the  lord  chancellor  of  Ireland,  and  had  a  fine 
interview  with  him." 

It  was  a  very  pleasant  call  that  the  writer  had  upon  Mr. 
Pillsbury  at  his  home,  and  the  pleasure  was  heightened  not 
a  little  when  Mrs.  Pillsbury,  a  very  estimable  lady,  who  has 
done  much  for  charity,  came  forward  with  kindly  greeting 
and  to  express  her  interest  in  the  unveiling  of  the  statue 
of  Mr.  Hale.  She  said  : 

"  An  anti-slavery  society  was  formed  by  a  few  of  the 
women  of  Concord  in  the  year  1838.  It  was  called  the 
Woman's  Anti-Slavery  society.  It  was  a  very  unpopular 


176  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

society.  Only  those  who  had  rare  moral  courage  felt  as 
though  they  could  belong  to  it.  We  used  to  have  our  meet 
ings  around  at  the.  houses  of  the  different  women.  Occa 
sionally  we  would  have  an  anti-slavery  fair  or  sale  on  a  very 
small  scale,  to  raise  money  to  help  send  slaves  to  Canada, 
and  help  carry  on  the  anti-slavery  paper,  the  Herald  of 
Freedom.  We  used  to  have  colored  people  in  the  house, 
sometimes  three  days  at  a  time,  until  we  could  get  them 
away  in  the  night  to  another  place  further  toward  Canada. 

"  There  were  not  many  members  of  our  society,  for  few 
dared  to  belong  to  it.  The  only  members  now  living  in 
Concord  are  Mrs.  Amos  Wood,  Mrs.  Nathaniel  White,  and 
myself.  Some  of  the  other  members  were  Mrs.  N.  P. 
Rogers,  Mrs.  Mary  Ann  French,  Mrs.  John  D.  Norton, 
Mrs.  Joseph  G.  Wyatt,  Mrs.  Esther  Currier,  Mrs.  Enoch 
Perkins,  Mrs.  Elbridge  Chase,  and  Mrs.  Mary  Ann  Allison. 

"The  society  was  in  existence  from  1838  to  1844.  It 
was  about  the  time  the  society  was  formed  that  we  were 
talking  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  Union,  and  Mr. 
Hale  lost  his  seat  in  the  house.  As  I  was  secretary  of  the 
society,  they  thought  I  ought  to  write  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hale 
telling  him  how  much  we  indorsed  his  course ;  and  I  ad 
dressed  him  in  this  way.  I  said :  The  women  of  Concord's 
anti-slavery  society  wish  me  to  write  you,  thus  and  so. 
He  replied  in  an  autograph  letter.  He  said  he  was  grati 
fied  to  receive  the  letter,  very  much  gratified,  but  first  of 
all  he  wished  to  say  how  much  more  gratifying  it  was  to 
receive  a  letter  of  that  import  from  women  than  from  ladies, 
for,  he  said,  '  In  my  experience  thus  far  with  the  world,  I 
have  found  that  there  is  this  difference, — God  made  women ; 
dancing-masters  and  milliners  made  ladies.' 

"  When  this  letter  came  to  me  I  opened  and  read  it,  and 
laid  it  in  the  record  book  of  the  society.  I  tied  it  between 
the  pages  and  left  it.  Some  one  took  my  place  as  secretary, 
and  book  and  all  were  lost.  In  after  years  when  he  called 
to  see  us  in  Concord,  he  would  almost  always  make  allusion 
to  that  letter,  for  he  said  it  was  the  only  one  he  ever 


APPENDIX.  177 

received  wherein  the  writers  wrote  as  women.  He  said  it 
took  women  in  those  days  to  work  for  the  slaves.  As  I 
wrote  him  in  that  letter  I  said  something  like  this, — "We  are 
all  in  sympathy  with  you  in  this  work  that  you  have  done, 
and  were  we  allowed  to  vote,  how  zealously  we  should  all 
vote  that  you  should  retain  your  place." 


FUNERAL  CEREMONIES. 

[From  a  contemporaneous  publication.] 

The  death  of  Hon.  John  P.  Hale,  the  distinguished  and 
eloquent  champion  of  liberty,  took  place  Wednesday  even 
ing,  November  19,  1873,  after  more  than  three  years  of 
serious  illness  and  suffering.  The  record  of  his  life  is  full 
of  honor  and  heroism,  and  his  noble  services  in  behalf  of 
the  oppressed  will  never  be  forgotten,  but  will  illumine  the 
pages  of  American  history  with  glorious  lustre. 

The  city  of  Dover  made  appropriate  and  sincere  observa 
tion  of  the  sad  funeral  occasion,  Saturday,  November  22. 
Business  was  generally  suspended,  and  large  numbers  of 
people  from  surrounding  places,  and  many  from  various 
sections  of  New  England,  were  present.  An  almost  Sab 
bath  stillness  reigned  in  the  stricken  city.  Bunting  draped 
in  mourning  was  displayed  at  half  mast,  and  at  various 
places,  and  the  bells  tolled  their  solemn  requiem  as  the 
ceremonies  were  in  progress. 

At  1.30  p.  m.  family  prayers  were  held  at  the  late  resi 
dence  of  the  deceased  on  Pleasant  street,  and  the  remains 
were  then  taken  to  the  Unitarian  church  on  Locust  street, 
Rev.  Thomas  W.  Brown,  pastor.  The  church  was  filled 
with  sorrowing  people,  long  before  the  services  began, 
including  many  distinguished  persons  from  this  and  other 
states.  The  pulpit  was  draped  in  black  and  bore  a  floral 
tribute.  At  the  foot  of  the  casket  was  a  cross  of  white 
roses  with  trailing  smilax ;  at  the  head,  a  very  large  crown 
of  the  same  surmounted  by  a  floral  cross,  and  encircling  the-. 
12 


178  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

plate  a  beautiful  wreath.  The  plate  was  inscribed,  "  John 
Parker  Hale,  aged  67  years." 

The  services  wer/e  deeply  impressive,  and  were  conducted 
by  Rev.  Thomas  W.  Brown,  pastor,  assisted  by  Rev.  John 
Parkman,  of  Boston,  in  former  years  pastor  of  the  church 
and  a  personal  friend  of  the  deceased.  The  opening  ser 
vice  was  a  chant  by  the  choir,  followed  by  selections  from 
the  Scriptures. 

Rev.  Mr.  Brown  then  delivered  the  funeral  address, 
referring  in  an  appropriate  manner  to  the  greatness  of  soul, 
the  thrilling  eloquence,  the  championship  of  the  rights  of 
the  oppressed,  the  deep  religious  character  of  the  deceased 
statesman,  and  closing  with  the  words : 

"  And  now  he  rests ;  his  greatness  and  his  sweetness 

No  more  shall  seem  at  strife  ; 
And  death  has  moulded  into  calm  completeness 
The  statue  of  bis  life." 

Rev.  John  Parkman  then  gave  some  touching  reminis 
cences  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  deceased,  thirty  years 
ago,  showing  the  lofty  character  and  nobility  of  soul  of  Mr. 
Hale,  and  referred  to  his  firm  religious  faith. 

The  closing  services  were  prayer  by  the  pastor  and  a 
hymn  sung  by  the  choir.  The  remains  were  then  taken  in 
solemn  procession  to  Pine  Hill  cemetery,  which  spot  the 
deceased  loved  to  visit  and  view  the  beautiful  scenery  it 
affords. 

The  committal  service  was  there  performed  by  Rev. 
Thomas  R.  Lambert,  D.  D.,  of  Charlestown,  Mass.,  of  St. 
John's  (Episcopal)  church,  a  brother-in-law  of  the  deceased. 

The  pall  bearers  were  Hon.  E.  A.  Straw  (governor), 
Hon.  Walker  Harriman,  Judge  Daniel  Clark,  Gen.  Oilman 
Marston,  Hon.  George  G.  Fogg,  Hon.  Mason  W.  Tappan, 
Hon.  E.  H.  Rollins,  Hon.  James  Pike,  Hon.  Charles  H. 
Horton  (mayor),  Hon.  John  H.  White,  Hon.  Oliver  Wyatt, 
and  Benjamin  Barnes,  Esq. 


APPENDIX.  179 

MEMORIAL  SERVICES. 

At  the  Unitarian  church,  Sunday  morning,  November  23, 
memorial  services  were  held  in  honor  of  the  late  Hon. 
John  P.  Hale.  The  attendance  was  very  large,  including 
friends  from  all  denominations. 

The  usual  services  were  given,  the  selections  by  the  pas 
tor  and  choir  being  appropriate  and  with  especial  reference 
to  the  occasion. 

[FROM  A  SERMON  BY  REV.  THOMAS  W.  BROWN.] 

"  Faithful  unto  Death." — Revelation  2  :  10.  I  think  that 
they  who  are  accustomed  to  judge  our  friend's  life  (and 
perhaps  of  the  motives  of  that  life)  by  its  successes  instead 
of  its  sacrifices,  are  at  fault  in  so  doing.  The  successes 
came,  indeed,  as  the  divine  Providence  that  guides  the 
world,  and  its  destiny  sometimes  permits  such  triumphs  to 
follow  upon  human  endeavor  and  righteous  service.  But 
the  successes  came,  not  without  long  waiting,  and  many, 
many  dark  days  and  deeds  of  sacrifice.  Said  one,  who  was 
not  in  political  affinity  with  our  departed  friend,  and  whose 
testimony  is  therefore  of  the  more  value,  "  When  Mr.  Hale 
took  his  seat  in  the  senate,  he  was  almost  alone,  and  had  to 
combat,  single-handed,  against  the  political  giants  of  those 
clays.  Sometimes  he  was  met  with  labored  arguments,  and 
again  by  bitter  reproaches.  Sometimes  those  who  were  his 
peers  would  affect  to  ignore  him,  and  again  they  would 
mercilessly  denounce  him,  as  advancing  doctrines  dangerous 
to  the  Republic.  But  he  was  not  to  be  silenced,  or  intimi 
dated,  in  the  discharge  of  what  he  believed  to  be  his  duty. 
So  high  were  his  aims,  and  so  conciliatory  his  manners, 
that  before  the  close  of  his  senatorial  term  he  had  beaten 
down  the  barriers  of  opposition  and  fairly  conquered.  *  * 
He  was  thus  not  only  the  standard-bearer,  but  the  pioneer 
of  the  North,  in  the  senate." 

And  all  this  is  true.     But  who  of  us  shall  tell,  who  of  us 


180  THE   HALE  STATUE. 

can  even  conceive,  the  immense  cost  at  which  all  this  well- 
earned  triumph  was  achieved?  The  alienations  of  old 
friends ;  the  unjust  'suspicion  of  motives ;  the  bitter  sar 
casms  heaped  upon  his  conscientiously  avowed  principles 
and  purposes ;  the  loneliness  of  a  position  which  left  him, 
for  a  time,  in  a  kind  of  banishment,  and  under  party  pro 
scription  ;  the  fierce  fightings  with  temptations  to  yield, 
where  to  yield  was  treason  to  the  right ;  and  the  long,  long 
catalogue  of  self-denials  and  self-sacrifices  and  resistances 
to  the  sophistry  of  self-seeking,  in  order  to  be  the  great  and 
noble  soul  he  was ;  and,  if  it  be  true,  as  doubtless  it  is,  that 
one  who  now  stands  foremost  in  that  national  chamber  in 
which  our  departed  friend  won  laurels  which  shall  never 
fade, — but  which  reverent  hands  shall  ever  twine  freshly 
about  his  venerated  memory, — if  it  be  true,  I  say,  that  such 
an  one  exclaimed,  "  Ah,  Mr.  Hale  has  said  wiser,  and  done 
better,  things  than  we  all,"  is  it  not  because  he  who  is  thus 
so  justly  eulogized  won  his  robes  of  glory  and  honor  through 
much  patiently  endured  mental  tribulation  ? 

If,  now,  we  analyze  this  greatness  of  his,  this  genuine 
heroism  which  compelled,  in  spite  of  themselves,  the  admira 
tion,  even  of  his  political  adversaries,  we  shall  find  it,  I 
think,  to  be  very  largely  of  a  moral  character.  Even  of 
intellectual  power,  indeed,  it  is  easy  enough  to  see  that  he 
was  a  remarkable  possessor ;  and  if  the  question  were  one 
of  daring  merely,  of  the  bare  courage  to  say  bold  and 
startling  things  in  his  place  in  congress,  few  could  equal 
him.  But  there  was  something  beside  and  better  than 
these,  something  as  far  above  and  beyond  these  as  heaven 
is  above  and  beyond  the  earth  on  which  we  dwell ;  and  this 
was  his  moral  fearlessness.  Indeed,  it  would  almost  seem 
as  if  he  scarcely  knew  the  meaning  of  the  word  fear.  He 
must  have  known  his  danger.  His  friends  at  least  knew  of 
it,  and  had  many  fears  for  him.  How  could  they  help  it? 
How  could  he  help  it  ?  Yet  he  never  took  so  much  as  the 
slightest  precaution  against  such  danger.  Others  went 
armed,  about  the  streets  of  the  capital  and  into  its  perilous 


APPENDIX.  181 

suburbs ;  and  some  of  these,  even,  were  attacked  and  as 
saulted.  But  he,  without  a  single  weapon,  without  a  single 
apparent  feeling  of  the  need  of  one,  went  everywhere  and 
anywhere,  alone  and  unguarded.  We  read  to-day  with 
a  smile  the  threats  which  were  fulminated  against  his  life 
and  safety.  But  they  were  no  idle  threats  then  ;  and  still, 
walking  in  his  integrity,  panoplied  by  his  mens  sibi  conscia 
recti,  he  was  without  fear  as  he  was  without  reproach. 
Sullen  looks,  harsh  threats,  bitter  invectives  glanced  off 
from  his  armor  of  proof,  and  left  him  as  undismayed  as  he 
was  unharmed  by  them. 

And  this  was  the  courage,  not  simply  of  the  martial  hero 
but  of  the  Christian  hero ;  not  the  mere  daring  of  reckless 
ness  or  passion,  but  of  lofty  principle.  He  knew  himself  to 
be  right ;  and  thus  to  be  on  the  side  of  Him  who  has 
pledged  His  Almighty  power  to  the  defense  of  the  right. 
He  knew,  too,  that  the  life  or  safety  of  man — of  any  man — 
was  of  less  consequence  to  the  world  and  the  truth  than 
fidelity  to  duty  and  consecration  to  principle ;  and  this  is 
why  he  was  fearless ;  this  is  why,  like  a  great  apostle  of 
the  olden  time,  whose  life  he  must  often  have  studied,  and 
whose  fearless  devotion  to  duty  he  so  frequently  emulated, 
he  did  not  count  his  life,  even,  dear  unto  him,  if  so  that 
he  might  win  the  right  and  the  true. 

********** 

But  what  was  the  occasion,  what  the  inspiration,  of  our 
friend's  courage  ?  It  was  this  :  To  set  at  defiance  all  the 
promptings  of  interest,  and  dare  all  the  dangers  of  enmity, 
in  behalf  of  the  oppressed,  the  down-trodden,  and  the 
despised ;  to  stoop  to  lift  up  a  mere  chattel,  that  he  might 
transmute  it  into  a  man  !  And  then,  as  if  this  were  not 
enough, — as  if  his  great  heart  were  large  enough,  as  it  was, 
— to  take  in  the  needs  of  a  people  more  numerous  than  the 
enslaved,  he  reaches  out  his  hand  in  deprecation,  and  lifts 
up  his  strong  voice  in  rebuke  of  that  barbarous,  that  brutal 
custom, — since  abolished  through  his  instrumentality — of 
plying  the  cruel  lash  upon  the  bare  backs  of  the  seamen  in 


182  THE  HALE   STATUE. 

our  national  ships.  Could  courage  be  sublimer  than  this, 
friends  ?  And  yet,  this  was  the  courage  which  dwelt  in  the 
heart,  this  the  tenxper  that  glorified  the  life,  and  will  im 
mortalize  the  memory,  of  him  whom  to-day  we  miss  from 
among  men.  And  is  it  not  the  pure  instinct  of  justice,  as 
well  as  of  admiration,  which  prompts  us  to  exclaim, 

"  Thanks,  for  the  good  man's  beautiful  example, 

Who  in  the  vilest  saw 
Some  sacred  crypt,  or  altar  of  a  temple 
Still  vocal  with  God's  law." 

How  conspicuous  an  element,  too,  in  our  friend's  great 
ness,  how  largely  contributive  to  the  rich  completeness  of 
his  character,  was  his  wondrous  self-control !  There  was 
power  in  him,  as  we  all  know,  fit  to  crush  and  wither  at 
will ;  and  there  must  have  been  times,  when  to  use  that 
power,  and  perhaps  to  abuse  it,  must  have  been  one  of  the 
strongest  of  temptations.  But  did  any  one  ever  know  him 
to  do  this?  No  man,  I  think,  was  likely  to  have  had 
stronger  feelings  than  he,  or  more  fierce  uprisings  of  that 
nature  in  us,  that  leads  to  passionate,  or  at  least  to  petulant, 
outbreak  into  sharp  speech.  No  man,  too,  could  have  been 
more  outraged  in  his  better  nature,  not  only  at  the  sight  of 
the  wrongs  which  were  countenanced,  but  at  the  wrong-do 
ings  that  were  excused  and  approved  by  law  or  long  estab 
lished  custom.  And  then  there  were  the  personal  taunts  to 
which  he  was  at  times  subjected,  and  the  sarcastic  allusions 
to  professed  principles,  and  the  domineering  spirit  of  oppo 
sition  to  his  views,  and  the  thousand  things  beside,  which 
were  calculated  to  aggravate  and  annoy  any  man.  But 
while  these  things  must  have  sometimes  provoked  him  to 
indignation,  and  indignant  protest,  and  dignified  self-asser 
tion,  yet  I  recall  not  a  single  instance  in  which  he  actually 
lost  temper,  or  fell  into  passionate  recrimination  over  them. 
Instead  of  this,  his  apparently  imperturbable  good  humor, 
his  conquering  pleasantry,  his  witty  retort,  his  manly  dig 
nity,  and  equipoise  of  temper  were  only  made  the  more  con- 


APPENDIX.  183 

spicuous  by  such  instances  and  experiences.  Of  course  I 
do  not  claim  that  he  was  perfect.  No  man  that  lives  is 
that.  But  I  do  mean  to  say,  that  whatever  may  have  been 
the  inward  struggle,  and  the  undetected  strife  within  his 
breast,  he  appears  always  to  have  been  the  victor.  Nay,  he 
often  even  disarmed  opposition,  and  turned  strife  into 
silence,  and  passion  into  peace  and  friendliness,  by  the  very 
contagion  of  his  own  inexhaustible  good  humor.  And  if  it 
be  true,  as  the  Scripture  alleges,  that  "he  that  is  slow  to 
anger  is  better  than  the  mighty,  and  he  that  ruleth  his 
spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city,"  then  he  whom  we  to-day 
mourn  was  even  mightier  than  many  who  wear  the  laurels 
of  chivalrous  conquest,  gained  upon  some  battle-field  of 
worldly  strife. 

But,  co-existing  with  this  dignity  and  equableness  of 
temper  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  enriching  and  glorify 
ing  it,  as  well  as  all  beside  in  his  character — was  his  Chris 
tian  faith ;  his  trust,  pure  and  unshaken,  in  the  great  God, 
who  guides  and  governs  all  things.  I  am  not  aware,  in 
deed,  that  he  had  much  to  say  about  this  Christian  faith. 
Least  of  all,  is  he  likely  to  have  been  one  who  would  ever 
boast  about  it,  or  parade  it  before  the  gaze  of  others.  That 
was  not  like  him  at  all.  But  that  he  was  filled  and  fired 
with  it,  I  cannot  see  how  any  man  who  knew  him  can  well 
doubt.  In  fact,  his  entire  life  is  the  sufficient  evidence  of 
this.  What  was  that  life,  indeed,  except  a  giving  forth  of 
itself  for  the  good  of  others ;  a  deep  and  long  devotion  and 
fidelity  to  the  advocacy  and  advancement  of  causes  and 
interests,  which,  at  the  outset  at  least,  seemed  calculated  to 
meet  only  with  failure?  And  could  he  have  lived  such  a 
life,  could  he  have  endured  such  wearying  opposition  and 
self-denial  in  the  way  of  duty-bearing,  except  as  he  was  sus 
tained  and  nourished  by  a  devout  faith  in  God  and  the 
right  ? 

He  lived,  it  is  true — and  in  this  respect  he  was  far  more 
favored  than  are  the  majority  of  the  great  workers  for 
humanity — he  lived  to  see  all,  and  more  than  all  he  had 


184  THE  HALE  STATUE. 

anticipated  and  hoped  for,  splendidly  achieved.  But  in  the 
helping  to  bring  it  all  to  pass,  what  discouragement  and 
deferred  hope  ;  what  slow  progress  and  persistent  encounter 
of  opposition ;  what  liability  to  misapprehension  on  the 
part  of  others,  and  half  distrust  of  one's  self,  perchance ! 
What  a  perpetual  challenge  to  one's  patience,  too,  and  what 
a  seemingly  unending  demand  for  effort  and  struggle  I  Yet 
he  proved  equal  to  it  all.  Not  because  he  had  faith  in  him 
self  simply — which  every  good  man  ought  to  have ;  not  be 
cause  he  trusted  in  others  merely,  or  in  the  final  triumph  of 
abstract  principle ;  but  because  he  trusted  in  God,  and 
leaned  upon  the  arm  which  is  Almighty.  He  himself 
might  perish  in  the  contest.  All  others  might.  But  the 
right,  and  the  true,  and  the  good,  must  survive  and  succeed, 
though  the  heavens  themselves  fell.  "  Time  and  myself  " 
is  said  to  have  been  the  motto  of  one  of  the  old  Spanish 
kings,  "  time  and  myself  against  the  world."  "  God  and 
myself  seems  to  have  been  the  motto  of  our  departed 
friend,  "  God  and  myself  against  a  whole  universe  of  evil 
and  wrong."  And  this  faith  of  his  conquered  ;  as  all  such 
faith  in  the  Highest  eventually  must,  by  whomsoever 
cherished. 

But  he  is  dead,  alas !  this  noble  defender  of  the  right , 
this  champion  of  freedom,  philanthropy,  and  human  rights  ! 
Dead!  did  I  say?  Nay,  he  has  but  just  begun,  in  the 
highest  sense,  to  live.  Lives  like  his, — noble  and  Christian 
careers  of  usefulness  and  godly  service,  do  not  end  at  the 
gate-way  of  the  grave.  They  cannot.  There,  on  the  con 
trary,  they  commence  to  put  on  immortality ;  not  alone  the 
immortality  of  heaven,  but  that  of  earth.  Dying,  such  men 
yet  live.  Passing  on  and  up,  they  do  but  become  the  more 
imperishable  possessors  of  the  earth,  which  they  have  en 
riched  by  their  noble  service.  Their  influence,  their  mem 
ories,  the  inextinguishable  grace  of  a  something  in  them, 
which  death  only  transfigures  into  a  more  enduring  sub 
stance,  these  all  survive.  Like  the  fragrance  of  flowers, 
which  goes  out  into  the  air  even  when  the  flowers  them- 


APPENDIX.  185 

selves  are  crushed,  or  when  they  droop  and  die  at  the  touch 
of  some  sudden  blight — so  the  aroma  of  a  good  life  sends 
out  an  incense  of  spiritual  fragrance  into  the  atmosphere  of 
men's  lives,  which  abides,  and  enriches,  and  influences  long 
after  the  career  of  the  departed  has  become  little  else  but  a 
memory. 

It  is  related  of  one  of  the  early  chieftains  of  a  Scottish 
clan,  that  as  he  fell  one  day  mortally  wounded  upon  the 
field  of  battle,  bleeding  and  gasping,  his  followers  seemed 
ready  to  give  way.  All  was  lost,  they  thought,  if  he  were 
to  perish.  But  just  then  the  glance  of  the  expiring  hero 
fell  upon  their  wavering  ranks,  and,  dying  though  he  was, 
the  spirit  of  a  hundred  heroes  still  burned  in  his  heart. 
Raising  himself  heavily  and  most  painfully  upon  his  elbow, 
and  looking  undauntedly  and  gloriously  out  upon  his  waver 
ing  band  through  the  gathering  mists  of  death,  he  exclaimed, 
"  My  children  !  My  children  !  I  am  not  dead;  lam  only 
looking  on,  to  see  that  you  do  your  duty." 

So  with  the  honored  friend  and  leader  who  has  just  gone 
before  us,  and  upon  whose  placid,  peaceful  countenance — 
typical  of  the  undying  peace  into  which  he  has  entered — 
we  looked  for  the  last  time  yesterday.  "  Only  looking  on  " 
upon  us  is  he,  "  to  see  that  we  do  our  duty,"  as  he  so 
grandly  did  his.  Looking  on  upon  us,  out  of  his  grand  and 
completed  life  of  duty,  and  from  his  exalted  seat  in  heaven ; 
looking  on,  too,  to  shame  our  shortcoming  and  wavering, 
and  to  stimulate  our  faith  and  steadfastness.  And  as  we 
remember,  that 

"  Round  his  grave  are  quietude  and  beauty ; 

And  the  sweet  Heaven  above, 
The  fitting  symbols  of  a  life  of  duty, 
Transfigured  into  love ! " 

let  us  remember,  too,  that  this  quietude,  and  beauty,  and 
sweetness  of  peace,  are  to  be  our  inspiration  as  well  as  our 
comfort,  our  quickening  in  the  way  of  duty  as  well  as  our 
confirmation  in  the  trust  of  that  life  everlasting,  upon  which 
he  himself  has  so  triumphantly  entered. 


186  THE   HALE  STATUE. 

[FROM  A  SERMON  BY  REV.  GEORGE  B.  SPAULDING.] 

The  following  extracts  are  from  a  discourse  commemora 
tive  of  the  character  and  career  of  Hon.  John  Parker  Hale, 
delivered  in  the  First  Parish  church,  Dover,  N.  H.,  on 
Thanksgiving  day,  November  27,  1873,  by  the  Rev.  George 
B.  Spaulding: 

Let  us,  as  best  we  may,  bring  back  before  us  the  charac 
ter  and  career  of  our  illustrious  townsman, — the  brilliant 
lawyer,  the  fearless,  indomitable  public  leader,  the  untar 
nished  senator,  the  true  brother  and  champion  of  his  entire 
race,  John  Parker  Hale. 

The  first  glimpse  which  I  catch  of  him  is  full  of  pathos, 
and  is  most  significant.  In  his  early  boyhood  he  lost  his 
father,  a  parent  tenderly  loved  and  revered.  It  is  said,  by 
neighbors  who  sympathized  with  the  boy  in  his  early  sor 
rows,  that  for  a  long  time  he  was  wont  to  go  forth  at  early 
morning  hour,  or  in  the  solemn  evening  twilight,  and  kneel 
down  by  the  father's  grave  to  pray.  The  figure  of  that 
kneeling  boy,  in  that  rude  graveyard,  is  the  most  fixed  and 
prominent  recollection  which  some  have  of  him  whom  we 
honor  to-day. 

If  I  know  anything  of  New  England  character  and  of 
the  power  of  New  England  training,  I  know  that  both  have 
from  the  first  been  so  distinctly  religious  that  most  of  our 
great  men  have  had  their  natures  permeated  with  great 
religious  sentiments  and  principles.  I  think  of  John 
Adams,  taught  in  his  infancy  to  repeat  the  prayer  which  he 
never  after  forgot  to  utter  to  the  close  of  his  magnificent 
career,  "Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep;"  I  think  of  Web 
ster,  who,  according  to  his  own  words,  was  taught  to  lisp  at 
his  mother's  feet  and  on  his  father's  knee,  texts  from  the 
Scripture ;  I  think  of  this  young  boy,  easing  his  breaking 
heart  in  prayers  to  God  over  his  father's  grave ;  and  I  see 
how  it  was  that  one  and  all  of  them  in  all  after  life,  despite 
all  their  mistakes,  despite,  it  may  be,  the  absence  of  an  open 
and  professed  piety,  manifested  the  presence  and  power  in 


APPENDIX.  187 

them  of  a  profoundly  religious  nature.  In  this  I  find  the 
key  to  their  characters.  In  this  I  see  an  explanation  of 
that  deep  moral  earnestness,  that  solemnity  and  grandeur, 
which  came  out  in  all  their  great  speech  and  action. 

Mr.  Hale  was  preeminently  an  advocate.  His  real  place 
was  before  a  jury.  He  understood  law, — but  its  great  prin 
ciples  rather  than  its  technicalities.  And  these  first  he  had 
mastered,  not  by  close,  severe  study,  but  by  a  kind  of  intui 
tive  insight,  coupled  with  a  quick,  retentive  memory,  which 
treasured  up  for  his  ready  use  decisions  and  arguments  to 
which  he  had  once  listened,  or  of  which  he  had  once  curso 
rily  read.  As  he  stood  up  before  the  jury,  not  drilled  to 
his  task  by  painstaking  care,  but  inspired  by  the  occasion, 
by  the  very  faces  which  confronted  him,  with  his  large, 
generous  form,  his  free,  open  gestures,  all  lighted  with  a 
soul  that  was  earnest  with  conviction,  with  words  singularly 
facile,  but  terse  and  full  of  force,  holding  his  flashing  lance 
straight  and  steadily  to  the  one  point  in  the  case,  and  driv 
ing  it  home  with  his  splendid  bursts  of  feeling,  he  was  well- 
nigh  irresistible.  He  was  full  of  imagination,  but  his 
imagery  never  blunted  the  edge  of  his  blade,  nor  impeded 
the  vigor  of  his  blow.  His  speech  was  like  an  eastern 
scimitar,  bright  and  dazzling,  and  yet  keen  in  edge,  cutting 
to  the  marrow. 

Let  me  give  you  an  instance  :  It  was  during  one  of  those 
famous  trials  growing  out  of  the  rescue  of  the  slave  Shad- 
rach  at  Boston.  Mr.  Hale  had  read  from  the  reports 
numerous  decisions  to  the  effect  that  slavery  is  against  the 
laws  of  God,  the  law  of  nature,  and  the  laws  of  England 
and  Massachusetts.  He  also  read  from  the  laws  of  Vir 
ginia  and  other  southern  states  to  show  that  a  person  of 
Shadrach's  color  (not  a  negro)  is  even  there  presumed  to  be 
free,  and  cannot  be  proved  a  slave  except  by  evidence  of 
descent  from  an  African  slave-mother,  and  that  possession 
and  holding  of  a  slave  did  not  afford  a  presumption  of  slav 
ery.  He  then  said,  "  Now,  gentlemen,  it  appears  that  there 


188  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

is  no  slavery  by  the  law  of  England,  by  the  law  of  Massa 
chusetts,  by  the  law  of  nature  ;  and  these  old  judges  say, — 
mind,  your  excellency,  I  do  not  say  this ;  it  would  be 
treason  ;  so  unequivocal  a  recognition  of  the  higher  law 
would  be  treason  in  me, — but  these  old  judges  say  that  it  is 
against  the  law  of  God  !  Against  all  these  laws,  against  all 
this  evidence,  against  all  these  presumptions,  comes  one 
John  Debree  from  Norfolk,  Va.,  and  says  that  he  owns 
him !  This  is  all  the  evidence.  The  mere  breath  of  the 
slave-catcher's  mouth  turns  a  man  into  another  man's  chat 
tel!  Suppose  John  Debree  had  said  that  he  owned  the 
moon,  or  the  stars,  or  had  an  exclusive  right  to  the  sunshine, 
would  you  find  it  so  by  your  verdict?  But,  gentlemen,  the 
stars  shall  fade  and  fall  from  heaven  ;  the  moon  shall  grow 
old  and  decay ;  and  heavens  themselves  shall  pass  away  as 
a  scroll, — but  the  soul  of  the  despised  and  hunted  Shadrach 
shall  live  on  with  the  life  of  God  himself!  I  wonder  if 
John  DeBree  will  say  that  he  owns  him  then  ! " 

It  is  said  that  neither  court  nor  marshals  could  check  the 
long  and  tumultuous  applause  which  followed.  Here  is 
finest  wit  and  genuine  humor,  and  vivid,  bold  imagination, 
and  most  felicitous  language  ;  but  under  all,  like  an  organ's 
peal,  we  hear  the  solemn  movement  of  a  profoundly  earnest 
soul. 

I  think  that,  as  we  follow  the  man  on  in  his  great  career, 
and  note  those  passages  which  have  been  and  always  will 
be  treasured  up  as  specimens  of  masterly  power  and  elo 
quence,  we  shall  find  that  they,  one  and  all,  were  spoken 
when  his  moral  nature  was  most  deeply  stirred,  when  his 
soul  quivered  with  a  sense  of  God  and  his  eternal  and 
immutable  truths. 

At  the  closing  session  of  the  twenty-eighth  congress,  a 
resolution  was  introduced,  under  the  stimulus  of  President 
Tyler's  message,  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  as  a  slave 
state.  It  was  not  a  measure  of  the  Democratic  party ;  it 
was,  rather,  a  personal  scheme  of  the  president's.  It  was 


APPENDIX.  189 

denounced  by  prominent  Democratic  congressmen  ;  and  I 
think  that  the  testimony  of  the  party  in  this  state  was,  for 
a  time  at  least,  straight  against  it.  Mr.  Hale  put  himself 
on  record,  by  speech,  resolution,  and  ballot,  as  opposed  to 
the  measure.  He  was  not  long  in  discovering  that  his  posi 
tion  was  not  approved  at  home  ;  and,  further  on,  he  came 
to  see  that  his  continued  opposition  to  the  annexation 
would  prove  his  political  death-warrant.  He  was  at  this 
time  the  nominee  of  his  party  for  re-election ;  but  he  knew 
that  his  votes  and  action  on  this  measure  would  result  in 
his  being  finally  repudiated  by  his  political  friends.  Still, 
he  wavered  not.  Rather,  he  went  forward  and  forestalled 
his  doom  by  writing  a  letter,  addressed  to  his  constituents,  in 
which  he  declared  that  the  reasons  given  by  the  advocates 
of  the  annexation  scheme  "  were  eminently  worthy  to  pro 
voke  the  scorn  of  earth  and  the  judgment  of  Heaven." 
In  the  convention  of  his  party,  which  immediately  followed^ 
Mr.  Hale's  name  was  struck  from  the  ticket  by  a  unanimous 
vote.  Mr.  Hale  then  began  to  make  those  appeals  to  the 
people,  in  which  the  powers  of  his  peculiar  and  versatile  elo 
quence  had  full  play.  He  spoke  before  crowded  audiences 
in  great  halls,  or  to  the  few  who  gathered  in  school-houses, 
or  in  the  open  air,  to  listen  to  his  impassioned  vindications. 
The  meeting  in  the  Old  North  church,  at  Concord,  will 
never  be  forgotten.  Mr.  Hale  went  there  an  object  of  bit 
ter  hatred  to  his  old  friends,  not  accepted  by  the  other 
great  party, — alone.  In  that  speech  in  the  church,  in  the 
presence  of  an  excited,  crowded  audience,  his  voice  attuned 
to  the  promptings  of  his  deepest  convictions,  rang  out  those 
ever  memorable  words, — "  I  expected  to  be  called  ambi 
tious,  to  have  my  name  cast  out  as  evil,  to  be  traduced  and 
misrepresented.  I  have  not  been  disappointed,  but  if 
things  have  come  to  this  condition,  that  conscience  and  a 
sacred  regard  for  truth  and  duty  are  to  be  publicly  held  up 
to  ridicule  and  scouted  at  without  rebuke,  as  has  just  been 
done  here,  it  matters  little  whether  we  are  annexed  to 
Texas,  or  Texas  is  annexed  to  us.  I  may  be  permitted  to 


190  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

say  that  the  measure  of  my  ambition  will  be  full,  if,  when 
my  earthly  career  shall  be  finished,  and  my  bones  are  laid 
beneath  the  soil  of  New  Hampshire,  and  my  wife  and  chil 
dren  shall  repair  to  my  grave  to  drop  the  tear  of  affection 
to  my  memory,  they  may  read  on  my  tombstone,  '  He  who 
lies  beneath  surrendered  office  and  place  and  power,  rather 
than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery.' "  I  think  that  the 
bitterest  political  opponent  who  to-day  survives  Mr.  Hale 
must  admire  his  lofty,  intrepid  spirit,  as  thus  manifested; 
concede  his  perfect  honesty,  and  confess  that,  now,  as  he 
sleeps  beneath  New  Hampshire  soil,  after  nearly  thirty 
years  of  fearless  and  persistent  opposition  to  a  great  wrong, 
he  may  fairly  claim  the  proud  epitaph  which  he  once  craved. 
##*##*##** 
James  Otis  and  Patrick  Henry  were  the  evangels  of  our 
American  liberty.  Theirs  were  the  voices  which  were 
heard  ringing  in  the  wilderness.  They  did  a  work  as 
mighty  as  that  of  Washington  and  Adams,  whose  genius  it 
was  to  organize  the  forces  which  these  others  had  called 
into  life ;  to  put  them  into  serried  columns  on  the  field  of 
battle,  and  construct  them  into  the  union  of  states  and  the 
constitution  of  a  great  nation.  Mr.  Hale  was  the  Patrick 
Henry  of  our  Revolutionary  age.  His  clarion  voice,  wher 
ever  heard, — in  the  congressional  hall,  or  from  the  plat 
form, — electrified  the  people,  and  challenged  them,  for 
twenty  long  years,  to  a  deeper  and  deeper  indignation 
against  the  great  wrong  of  the  nation.  His  speeches  in  the 
senate  chamber  were  meant  for  other  ears  than  grave  and 
reverend  senators.  They  were  not  carefully  prepared  ora 
tions.  They  were  not  for  the  elucidation  of  some  perplex 
ing  subject  of  finance.  They  were  brief,  witty,  scathing 
replies,  or  magnificent  bursts  of  feeling  and  righteous  wrath, 
or  jocose  allusions  and  illustrations,  under  the  fun  and 
laughter  of  which  the  keen  blade  glittered,  or  solemn, 
prophetic  warning  and  appeal, — all  these,  from  first  to  last, 
bearing  upon  the  one  great  evil,  and  all  addressed  to  that 
vast,  to  him  ever  visible,  audience,  which,  in  all  the  cities 


APPENDIX.  191 

and  villages  and  in  every  hamlet  of  the  North  and  West, 
were  listening, — some  in  rage  and  some  in  fervid  sym 
pathy — but  all  listening  with  profound  interest  to  the  words 
which  leaped  from  his  lips. 

And  how  skilfully  Heaven  fitted  its  chosen  instrument 
for  this  great,  perilous  work.  It  was  wonderful.  Other 
congressmen  spoke  in  opposition  to  slavery,  and  then  be 
came  silent  through  fear.  Others  only  evoked  an  answer 
ing  wrath,  which  took  from  their  arguments  half  their 
power.  But  here  was  one  who  stood,  through  the  battle  of 
twenty  years,  the  most  conspicuous  knight  of  them  all, 
striking  with  the  heavy  and  lightning  stroke  of  a  Cosur  de 
Lion,  but  with  such  good  heartiness,  such  imperturbable 
temper,  such  rollicking  fun,  in  the  wild  medley  of  the  great 
fight,  that  his  enemies  fell  back  to  pay  homage  to  his  mag 
nanimity,  his  courage,  his  genuine  feeling,  his  irresistible, 
large  fellowship  and  good  nature. 

I  remember  when,  in  1858,  I  was  acting  as  a  reporter  in 
a  southern  commercial  convention  in  Savannah,  where  Yan- 
cey  and  Rhett  and  Barnwell  and  DeBow,  and  other  fiery 
sons  of  the  South,  poured  out  in  red-hot  invective  and  abuse 
their  hatred  of  northern  men, — I  remember  of  hearing  them 
speak  of  "  Jack  Hale,"  as  they  and  you  loved  to  call  him, 
as  a  "  prince  of  good  fellows."  In  an  after-sojourn  of  a 
year  in  the  South,  mingling  with  the  great  southern  lead 
ers,  just  on  the  eve  of  those  great  events  which  broke  upon 
us,  when  men's  minds  were  infuriated  with  hatred  of  the 
North,  I  do  not  recall  that  I  ever  heard  from  any  of  these 
men  any  word  which  indicated  a  bitter  feeling  against  Mr. 
Hale. 

Now,  such  a  man,  one  who  could  hold  his  place  and  yet 
all  the  time  be  true  to  it,  faithful  and  yet  courteous,  speak 
ing  the  severest  truth  with  such  an  inimitable  grace  of  soul 
that  his  foes  must  needs  join  in  admiration  of  it, — such  a 
man,  my  friends,  is  not  born  in  centuries.  It  was  our  hap 
piest  fortune  that  Heaven  sent  him  into  our  age  and  into 
the  awful  crisis  of  our  affairs.  One  less  courageous  than  he 


192  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

would  have  failed  us.     One  less  amiable  and  good-hearted 
would  have  been  useless. 

*         *         */•#         *         *         *         *         *         # 

With  his  private  life,  with  the  charms  of  his  personal 
character,  you  are  all  familiar.  His  sweetest  and  most 
attractive  trait  was  his  love  of  nature.  He  loved  the  great 
hill-tops  where  he  could  see  village  and  hamlet,  plain  and 
forest,  and  the  horizon  stretching  away  into  its  infinitude. 
He  loved  the  ocean,  and  would  sit  for  hours  entranced  by  its 
ever-varying  sights  and  sounds.  He  loved  especially  the 
hillside  where  he  now  lies,  and  from  it  he  was  wont  many 
and  many  times  to  gaze  in  mute  rapture  upon  the  sun  sink 
ing  into  the  western  heavens.  He  loved  his  old  ways  and 
old  places.  He  was  full  of  the  simplicities  of  nature, — child 
like,  sportive,  notional,  hearty,  always  natural.  And  for  it 
all  you  loved  him  with  a  rare  fondness  and  pride.  No  party 
prejudice  kept  your  hearts  from  him.  When  he  came  back 
from  his  foreign  mission,  his  old  political  opponents  vied 
with  his  strong  party  friends  to  bid  him  warmest  welcome. 
In  his  sickness  and  sad  infirmities,  your  pities  and  prayers 
mingled.  And  when  at  last  God  had  called  him,  and  you 
went  forth  to  bear  him  to  his  loved  and  longed-for  resting- 
place,  without  thought  of  party  differences,  you,  with  tears 
and  tenderness,  laid  him  with  his  mother  earth. 

He  must  have  been  a  rare  man  to  have  thus  won  your 
hearts, — rare  in  the  qualities  of  his  social  nature  and  the 
sweetness  of  his  character,  as  well  as  in  his  splendid  intel 
lectual  capacities,  his  keen,  broad  mind,  his  intuitive  insight, 
his  fervid  imagination,  and  eloquent  speech.  Already  we 
yearn  to  honor  him  with  the  full  meed  of  his  honor,  but 
that  cannot  be.  The  smoke  and  dust  of  a  tremendous  con 
flict  still  cover  the  field.  We,  and  he  who  moved  so  grandly 
in  it,  are  not  to  be  seen  in  due  clearness  and  proportion,  but 
the  day  is  coming  when  the  mist  shall  have  cleared  away, 
and  all  will  stand  forth  in  the  revealing  light  of  history  in 
their  true  place  and  stature.  When  that  day  comes,  among 
the  greatest  who  wrought  with  equal  skill  and  force  to  lift 


APPENDIX.  193 

man  into  higher  dignity  and  knit  the  race  into  closer  broth 
erhood,  and  who  taught  succeeding  generations  the  solemn, 
inspiring  lesson  of  loyalty  to  God  and  right,  will  be  seen,  in 
all  the  loftiness  of  his  full  stature,  him  whom  to-day  we 
honor — John  Parker  Hale. 


NEWSPAPER   EXTRACTS. 

[From  The  Journal,  Augusta,  Me.,  August  3,  18&2.] 

To-morrow  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  which  has  been 
erected  in  the  Capitol  park,  Concord,  N.  H.,  by  the  munifi 
cence  of  his  son-in-law,  Hon.  W.  E.  Chandler  of  the  United 
States  senate,  will  be  publicly  presented  to  the  people  of 
New  Hampshire  and  dedicated  with  appropriate  exercises. 
The  honor  to  be  thus  paid  to  the  memory  of  this  incorrup 
tible  statesman  is  well  deserved,  for  in  the  contest  over 
slavery  which  ended  with  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  he  was  a 
brave  and  fearless  leader.  As  all  readers  of  American  his 
tory  know,  the  Free  Soil  movement,  which  led  to  the  Re 
bellion  and  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  of  President 
Lincoln,  began  in  the  American  congress  over  the  passage  of 
the  resolutions  providing  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  with 
out  recourse  to  the  treaty-making  power,  the  vote  on  which 
was  had  in  the  house  of  representatives  on  the  25th  of 
January,  1845.  The  Democratic  party,  which  had  just 
elected  James  K.  Polk  president,  made  the  support  of  these 
resolutions  the  test  (  f  party  fealty.  Of  the  ninety-eight 
negative  votes  but  twenty-eight  were  cast  by  those  classed 
as  Democrats,  all  of  whom  were  from  the  free  states.  One 
of  these  twenty-eight  was  John  P.  Hale,  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  then  serving  his  first  term  in  the  house. 

He  was  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  and  had  only  recently 
been  nominated  by  the  Democrats  of  his  district  for  re 
election.  For  his  disobedience  to  the  orders  of  the  slave 
power,  the  party  leaders  in  New  Hampshire  determined  to 
discipline  him,  but  they  never  made  a  more  fatal  party 
13 


194  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

blunder.  He  was  denounced  as.  a  traitor  to  his  party,  a 
new  convention  was  called  and  another  candidate  nomi 
nated,  the  result  of'  the  election  being  that  there  was  no 
choice,  and  for  the  next  two  years  the  district  was  unrepre 
sented  in  congress.  The  next  year,  1846,  Hale  was  elected 
to  the  New  Hampshire  legislature  by  his  Dover  friends,  was 
elected  speaker,  and  then  United  States  senator  for  the  full 
term  of  six  years,  as  an  anti-slavery  man,  and  in  December, 
1847,  he  entered  the  United  States  senate,  the  first  distinct 
ively  anti-slavery  member  of  that  body.  He  thus  became 
the  recognized  leader  of  the  Free  Soilers  throughout  the 
country.  He  would  doubtless  have  been  their  standard- 
bearer  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1848,  had  not  the 
party  decided  to  take  advantage  of  the  Barnburner  thirst 
for  revenge  on  Lewis  Cass,  and  so  placed  Van  Buren  at  the 
head  of  its  ticket,  but  in  1852  the  Free  Soilers  turned  to 
him  as  their  natural  leader.  He  was  one  of  the  bravest  and 
most  fearless  champions  of  the  cause  of  human  rights,  and 
his  courage,  ability,  and  thorough  steadfastness  in  support 
of  freedom  and  national  unity  were  of  the  highest  value, 
both  before  and  during  the  Civil  War.  In  the  light  of  his 
tory,  John  P.  Hale,  the  anti-slavery  Republican,  stands  far 
higher  in  the  roll  of  New  Hampshire  statesmen  than 
Franklin  Pierce,  the  pro-slavery  Democratic  president. 


[From  the  Camden  (Me.)  Herald,  August  12,  1892.] 

The  unveiling  last  week  of  the  beautiful  statue  of  John 
P.  Hale,  presented  to  the  city  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  by  Hon. 
William  E.  Chandler,  his  son-in-law,  was  an  occasion  of 
interest,  not  only  to  New  Hampshire  but  to  the  country. 
The  eloquent  eulogies  delivered  did  but  simple  justice  to 
one  who  bore  so  brave  and  manly  a  part  in  the  great  anti- 
slavery  struggle  from  1845  to  1865.  John  P.  Hale  was  a 
magnificent  man,  physically,  mentally,  and  morally.  He 
was  formerly  a  Democrat,  and  a  friend  and  political  asso- 


APPENDIX.  195 

ciate  of  Franklin  Pierce,  but  on  the  slavery  question  they 
divided,  Pierce  taking  the  pro-slavery  and  Hale  the  anti- 
slavery  side  of  the  question.  It  was  like  the  sundering  of 
family  ties,  for  they  had  been  friends  and  associates  since 
their  college  days  at  Old  Bowdoin. 

The  work  which  John  P.  Hale  did  as  a  senator  from  New 
Hampshire  can  hardly  be  adequately  appreciated.  His 
bravery,  combined  with  his  eloquence  and  humorous  style, 
made  him  a  formidable  adversary  for  the  champions  of 
slavery  to  meet.  In  many  respects  he  was  superior  to 
Charles  Sumner  as  a  debater  and  controversialist.  The 
work  that  he  did  will  stand  in  history  more  enduring  than 
the  bronze  statue  erected  to  his  blessed  memory. 

Many  of  our  older  people  well  remember  hearing  John  P. 
Hale  speak  here  on  the  political  issues  of  the  country  in  the 
great  Lincoln  campaign  of  1860.  The  meeting  was  one  of 
the  largest  ever  held  in  Camden,  the  people  coming  not 
only  from  all  parts  of  the  county,  but  from  Bangor  with 
"wide-awake"  uniforms  and  banners.  It  was  held  in  the 
Buchanan  grove  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Battle  on  Mountain 
street.  We  shall  never  forget  the  stirring  eloquence  of  the 
speech  he  made  on  that  occasion.  His  humor  was  magnifi 
cent.  We  remember  distinctly  one  happy  hit  of  the  speech. 
There  was  a  great  complaint  at  that  time  against  the  minis 
ters  for  preaching  politics.  Mr.  Hale  said  this  preaching 
against  sin  had  always  been  unpopular  with  sinners.  He 
remembered  that  Paul  preached  on  one  occasion  at  Ephe- 
sus,  where  many  of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  were 
engaged  in  the  making  and  selling  of  silver  images  of  the 
Goddess  Diana.  One  of  these  rich  and  influential  gentle 
men  was  walking  up  to  the  church  with  Paul  where  he  was 
going  to  preach.  He  said  to  Paul  that  the  people  of  Ephe- 
sus  had  heard  a  great  deal  about  that  eloquent  sermon 
which  he  preached  at  Athens,  and  he  thought  they  would 
like  very  much  to  hear  him  repeat  that  sermon  ;  but  Paul, 
knowing  the  peculiar  sins  of  Ephesus,  pitched  right  into 
the  silver  image  business,  and  Paul  received  no  call  to 


196  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

preach  any  more  at  Ephesus !  The  humor  of  the  illustra 
tion  was  irresistible. 

We  remember  very  distinctly  the  simplicity  and  delight- 
fulness  of  the  man  while  he  was  a  guest  at  our  home.  We 
invited  to  dine  with  him  at  our  table  two  of  the  veteran 
Abolitionists  who  had  voted  for  Hale  as  the  Free  Soil  candi 
date  for  president  in  1852,  George  W.  Cobb  and  Nathaniel 
Hosmer.  The  meeting  of  these  men  was  one  we  shall 
never  forget.  We  remember  how  they  talked  of  the  oblo 
quy  of  carrying  the  banner  of  Free  Soil  in  the  dark  days  of 
persecution,  and  the  prospect  and  outlook  for  the  future. 

If  ever  man  was  worthy  of  a  statue  it  was  John  P.  Hale 
of  New  Hampshire. 


[From  The  Press,  Portland,  Me.,  August  1,  1892.] 

John  P.  Hale  was  one  of  the  earliest  in  the  field  of  the 
group  of  great  anti-slavery  statesmen.  When  the  war  with 
Mexico  opened  the  eyes  of  the  North,  both  of  the  great 
parties  contributed  men  who  thenceforth  became  famous 
anti-slavery  champions,  Seward,  Wade,  Fessenden,  Giddings, 
and  Stevens  came  from  the  Whig  party ;  and  John  P.  Hale, 
Hamlin,  Wilmot,  and  Chase  from  the  Democratic  party. 
Hale's  path  as  an  anti-slavery  leader  in  New  Hampshire 
was  not  strewn  with  roses.  Franklin  Pierce  tried  twice  to 
discipline  him  for  opposing  the  annexation  of  Texas ;  but 
he  beat  Pierce  twice  before  the  people,  defied  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  and  was  elected  to  the  United  States  senate  as 
a  Free  Soiler.  But  Pierce  triumphed  in  the  election  of  '52, 
when  he  was  elected  president,  receiving  1,601,274  votes  to 
1,386,580  for  Scott  (Whig),  and  155,825  for  Hale,  who  ran 
as  the  Free  Soil  candidate.  But  Pierce's  triumph  was  only 
for  a  time  ;  and  in  the  light  of  history  John  P.  Hale,  the 
anti-slavery  Republican,  stands  far  higher  in  the  roll  of 
New  Hampshire  statesmen  than  Franklin  Pierce,  the  pro- 
slavery  Democratic  president. 


APPENDIX.  197 

[From  The  Journal,  Augusta,  Me.,  August  5,  1892.] 

The  ceremonies  at  Concord,  Wednesday,  in  connection 
with  the  dedication  of  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  John 
P.  Hale,  were  a  fitting  and  impressive  tribute  to  one  of  the 
grandest  figures  in  New  England  history,  a  man  who  could 
not  be  driven  or  cajoled  from  his  convictions  of  duty,  and 
who  took  his  stand  for  free  soil,  free  speech,  and  free  men 
at  a  time  when  the  championship  of  those  principles  cost 
something. 

[From  The  Advertiser,  Boston,  Mass.,  August  6,  1892.] 

Senator  Chandler  of  New  Hampshire  never  did  a  better 
deed  than  when  he  promoted  the  placing  of  a  statue  at  the 
capital  of  his  state,  to  that  brave  and  effective  champion  of 
freedom,  his  predecessor  in  the  senate — John  Parker  Hale 
of  Dover.  Senator  Hale  deserved  the  honor  more  than 
Webster,  whose  statue  was  first  set  up  there ;  and  not  less 
than  John  Stark,  the  hero  of  Bunker  Hill  and  of  Benning- 
ton  ;  for  he  had  the  courage  that  Webster  needed,  and  that 
Stark  showed  so  often  in  battle.  Obstinate  courage  is  the 
ordinary  virtue  of  New  Hampshire, — so  common  that  its 
presence  is  hardly  noted ;  but  the  absence  of  it  excites 
remark  and  opprobrium  at  once.  The  warfare  carried  on 
by  Hale  against  the  arrogant  slave  masters  of  Carolina  and 
Virginia  was  longer,  and  at  first  seemed  more  hopeless, 
than  the  fight  of  Stark,  Weare,  and  Langdon  against  King 
George ;  but  the  final  result  was  similar. 

The  "  Granite  State,"  as  her  sons  like  to  call  New  Hamp 
shire,  was  united  against  England,  and  furnished  Washing 
ton  with  his  most  efficient  soldiers ;  she  also  stood  by 
Washington  in  peace  as  in  war ;  and  when  she  saw  Jack 
son,  with  equal  bravery,  if  with  more  passion,  defending  his 
country,  she  stood  by  him  also.  This  had  the  ill  effect  to 
throw  the  state  upon  the  wrong  side  in  the  early  years  of 
the  anti-slavery  conflict;  for  Jackson,  though  he  had  put 


198  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

down  the  revolt  of  Calhoun  in  1832,  was  a  slaveholder,  and 
an  advocate  for  annexing  Texas.  Hale,  like  his  college- 
mates,  Hawthorne",  F.  Pierce,  and  J.  Cilley,  was  a  Jackson 
Democrat, — had  even  been  appointed  to  office,  when  a 
young  lawyer,  by  President  Jackson  ;  but  when  the  scheme 
of  annexing  Texas,  merely  to  aid  slavery  against  freedom, 
was  pressed  upon  him,  he  refused  to  follow  the  party  flag 
any  longer. 

I  well  remember  the  excitement  aroused  by  his  bold 
course.  Pierce,  afterwards  president,  was  then  the  Demo 
cratic  leader  in  the  state — a  handsome,  genial,  plausible 
gentleman,  son  of  a  Revolutionary  officer,  and  without  any 
great  personal  ambition.  Hale,  also,  was  a  popular  lawyer, 
humorous  and  plain  in  manners,  but  of  an  earnestness  till 
then  unsuspected.  His  own  section — the  counties  of  Rock- 
ingham  and  Strafford,  which  had  been  almost  the  whole 
state  in  the  Revolution — stood  by  Hale,  and  the  Demo 
cratic  strength  was  broken  there,  never  to  return  in  full 
vigor.  The  little  town  of  Hampton  Falls,  from  which 
Whittier  dates  his  admirable  letter  in  praise  of  Hale,  threw 
more  Democratic  votes  for  Hale,  as  an  independent  candi 
date  for  congress,  than  for  Pierce's  man,  John  Woodbury. 
Two  years  later,  Hale  took  his  seat  in  the  senate,  the  first 
avowed  anti-slavery  senator  for  twenty-five  years.  He  was 
chosen  in  1846. 

Calhoun  of  Carolina  was  then  a  senator,  as  he  had  been 
for  more  than  twenty  years, — so  were  Benton  of  Missouri, 
Clay  of  Kentucky,  and  Webster  of  Massachusetts.  Hale 
was  a  new  man,  though  he  had  served  a  term  in  the  house, 
but  he  was  not  long  in  coming  to  the  front.  In  March, 
1848,  he  introduced  a  bill  in  the  senate  applying  Jefferson's 
ordinance  forbidding  slavery  in  Oregon,  which  was  soon  to 
come  in  as  a  state.  In  his  remarks  supporting  it,  he  said : 
"I  am  willing  to  place  myself  upon  the  great  principle  of 
human  right,  to  stand  where  the  word  of  God  and  my  own 
conscience  concur  in  placing  me,  and  then  bid  defiance  to 


APPENDIX.  199 

all  consequences."  Calhoun  maintained  that  congress  had 
no  power  to  prevent  a  slaveholder  from  emigrating  to  any 
territory,  and  there  holding  his  slaves,  and  that  even  the 
people  of  the  territory  had  no  right  to  say  no. 

A  few  days  later  Calhoun  declared  the  same  opinion, 
adding :  "  If  the  historian  who  shall  record  the  destruction 
of  our  Union  should  be  disposed  to  look  to  its  remote  and 
recondite  causes,  he  will  trace  them  to  a  proposition  which 
is  the  most  false  and  most  dangerous  of  all  political  errors, — 
that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal.  As  understood,  there 
is  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it."  In  the  following  month 
(April,  1848),  Hale  having  introduced  a  resolution  based  on 
a  law  of  Maryland  making  the  District  of  Columbia  respon 
sible  for  property  destroyed  by  a  pro-slavery  mob,  Calhoun 
said,  "  I  am  amazed  that  even  the  senator  from  New  Hamp 
shire  should  have  so  little  regard  for  the  constitution  of  the 
country  as  to  introduce  such  a  bill  as  this."  It  was  such 
utterances  as  this,  no  doubt,  that  led  Lowell,  in  the  "Big- 
low  Papers,"  to  make  Calhoun  say : 

We  stan'  on  the  Constitushun,  by  thunder! 

It' s  a  fac'  uv  wich  there  's  bushels  uv  proofs  : 
Fer  haow  c'd  we  trample  on  't  so,  I  wonder, 

Ef  't  warnt  thet  't  is  oilers  under  aour  hoofs? 

In  the  same  debate,  Senator  Foote  of  Mississippi  distin 
guished  himself,  even  among  slave-masters,  by  charging  that 
Hale  was  "  as  guilty  as  if  he  had  committed  highway  rob 
bery  ;  "  adding,  "  I  invite  him  to  visit  Mississippi,  and  will 
tell  him  beforehand  that  he  could  not  go  ten  miles  into  the 
interior,  .before  he  would  grace  one  of  the  tallest  trees  of 
the  forest,  with  a  rope  round  his  neck ;  and  that,  if  neces 
sary,  I  should  myself  assist  in  the  operation."  Such  were 
the  fair  humanities  of  old  slave-masters.  Little  did  Hale 
care  for  such  threats. 

Hale  was  twice  nominated  for  the  presidency — in  1848, 
when  he  declined  in  favor  of  Van  Buren,  and  in  1852, 


200  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

when  another  New  Hampshire  man  was  elected, — Franklin 
Pierce,  who  had  vainly  tried  to  put  Hale  down,  in  1845,  on 
the  Texas  issue.  This  time  Pierce  had  the  people  with 
him,  and  was  triumphantly  chosen  over  his  old  commander, 

Scott,  as  well  as  over  Hale.     It  was  a  barren  triumph. 

##*#****## 

Hale  was  then  recalled  to  the  senate,  ....  and 
from  1855  onward,  New  Hampshire  led  the  opposition  to 
slavery,  as  she  had  formerly  led  the  Jackson  Democracy. 
To  Hale  and  his  following  this  change  was  chiefly  due,  and 
it  came  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Webster,  Cass,  Pierce,  and 
the  other  eminent  "  Sons  of  New  Hampshire  "  were  all  on 
the  other  side.  The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected 
became  the  head  of  the  corner,  as  so  often  happens ;  and 
Hale  was  that  stone.  Now  he  stands  in  permanence  at  the 
corner  of  the  state  house  yard — a  sign  to  all  the  world  that 
men  love  a  brave  man. 

F.  B.  SANBORN. 

Concord,  August  5. 


[From  The  Spy,  Worcester,  Mass.,  August  3,  1892.] 

To-day  the  citizens  of  New  Hampshire  are  doing  a  credit 
able  thing  in  honoring  the  memory  of  their  most  distin 
guished  and  patriotic  statesman  of  the  last  generation,  by 
the  dedication  of  a  monument  at  the  state  capital  in  Con 
cord  to  John  P.  Hale The  political  revolution 

accomplished  by  Mr.  Hale,  and  those  who  stood  by  him  in 
his  refusal  to  bow  down  to  the  Baal  of  slavery  at  the  bid 
ding  of  Franklin  Pierce,  Isaac  Hill,  and  others  forty-six 
years  ago,  is  the  most  memorable  in  the  history  of  that 
state  or  of  any  other  state.  It  was  a  first  great  step  toward 
the  accomplishment  of  the  subsequent  grand  national  polit 
ical  revolution,  by  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  and 
slavery  abolished  in  the  country.  Hale's  triumph  over 
Pierce  in  1846  was  but  the  forerunner  of  the  triumph  of 
Lincoln  over  Douglas  and  Brecken ridge  in  1860,  and  of 
freedom  over  slavery  as  a  necessary  result.  The  platform 


APPENDIX.  201 

on  which  Mr.  Hale  was  nominated  for  president  in  1852 
had  for  one  of  its  planks  the  resolution  that  "slavery  is  a 
sin  against  God  and  a  crime  against  man,  and  we  will  use 
our  utmost  efforts  to  abolish  it ;  "  and  another,  that  "  we 
go  for  free  soil,  free  speech,  and  free  men,  and  will  fight 
ever  for  these  principles  until  victory  shall  reward  our 
efforts."  These  views  were  more  radical  than  those  put 
into  the  platforms  of  1856  and  1860,  but  the  nation  had  to 
come  up  to  them  before  the  war  was  over.  In  honoring 
John  P.  Hale  his  state  honors  the  platform  of  principles  on 
which  he  stood,  to  which,  thank  God,  the  nation  has  at  last 
come. 


[From  the  Haverhill  (Mass.)  Bulletin,  August  2,  1892  ] 

Many  men  have  been  born  and  reared  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  men  who  have  helped  shape  the  destiny  of  the  nation. 
Among  these,  few,  if  any,  occupied  a  grander  or  more  influ 
ential  position  than  the  late  John  Parker  Hale.  He  was 
born  in  1810,  and  grew  up  a  Democrat  after  the  strictest 
measure  of  the  party  of  his  state. 

In  1834,  while  residing  in  Dover,  he  was  appointed 
United  States  district  attorney  by  President  Jackson,  which 
office  he  held  until  removed  by  President  Tyler  in  1841. 
In  1843  he  was  elected  member  of  congress,  and  in  1844 
Polk  was  elected  president,  and  President  Tyler  was  mov 
ing  every  available  force  to  annex  Texas,  and  to  the  sur 
prise  of  many,  Mr.  Hale  opposed  the  scheme.  Two  years 
later  he  was  defeated,  and  a  man  friendly  to  annexation  was 
elected.  Then  followed  the  great  contest  in  New  Hamp 
shire  which  made  Hale  immortal ;  he  was  from  that  time 
onward  the  recognized  political  anti-slavery  leader  in  the 
Old  Granite  state.  He  went  before  the  people  of  the  state 
in  the  1845—46  campaign,  and  won.  He  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  legislature,  speaker  of  the  house,  and  United 
States  senator  for  six  years  from  March  4,  1847. 

The  campaign  of   1845  and   1846  completely  revolution- 


202  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ized  New  Hampshire.  Bale's  brave  words  for  freedom 
awoke  the  echoes  among  the  hills  and  through  the  valleys 
of  the  old  commonwealth,  arousing  the  hardy  yeomanry 
everywhere  to  a  sense  of  their  duty  to  humanity.  Men 
who  had  been  life-long  Democrats  threw  off  the  yoke  of 
bondage  and  rallied  under  the  new  standard  raised  by  the 
"Renegade  Jack  Hale,"  as  he  was  called  in  derision  by  the 
old  "hunkers,"  of  the  Democratic  party.  On  one  of  these 
occasions,  soon  after  this  memorable  campaign  began,  Mr. 
Hale,  by  invitation,  made  an  address  in  the  North  church 
at  Concord.  It  proved  the  event  of  his  life.  He  entered 
the  church  a  stranger  to  almost  everybody  present  in  the 
vast  audience.  He  was  there  to  vindicate  his  action  in 
leaving  his  old  associates  and  organizing  a  new  party.  He 
was,  as  he  afterwards  said  himself,  gloomy  and  desponding. 
But  the  inspiration  came  and  he  held  the  listeners  in 
breathless  silence  to  the  end.  That  inspiration,  said  Mr. 
Hale,  lasted  him  during  the  entire  campaign  and  never  left 
him,  and  subsided  only  when  the  proclamation  of  President 
Lincoln  declared  that  in  this  land  the  sun  should  rise  upon 
no  bondsman  and  set  upon  no  slaves.  And  this  enabled 
him  to  say  afterwards,  "  Now  when  I  turn  my  eyes  heaven 
ward,  I  can,  in  imagination,  see  hanging  out  from  the  bat 
tlements  of  Heaven  the  broken  shackles  of  four  millions  of 
slaves,  which  for  twenty  years  I  did  all  in  my  power  to 
rend." 

John  P.  Hale  was  a  great  man,  and  his  life  left  an 
impress  upon  New  Hampshire  which  will  never  fade  out. 
When  he  left  the  Democratic  party  of  his  native  state,  that 
party  was  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  slave  power  of  the 
South,  and  the  grand  old  state  seemed  to  be  doomed  to  wear 
the  shackles  and  chain  forever.  But  his  voice  broke  the 
spell,  and  such  men  as  the  late  William  Hoyt  of  Danville 
and  others  heard  and  spurned  longer  to  remain  in  the  ranks 
of  a  party  pledged  to  sustain  slavery  ;  they  joined  the  new 
movement,  and  New  Hampshire  soon  took  its  stand  on  the 
side  of  freedom  and  humanitv. 


APPENDIX.  203 

And  now,  while  John  P.  Hale  needs  no  monument  to 
perpetuate  his  memory  or  his  worth,  it  is  well  to  give  this 
splendid  statue,  now  ready,  a  place  in  the  State  House  park 
at  the  capital  of  the  state.  The  unveiling  of  this  fine  work 
of  art  is  to  take  place  on  Wednesday  with  imposing  and 
appropriate  ceremonies. 

"  Once  to  every  man  and  nation 

Comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  truth  with  falsehood, 
For  the  good  or  evil  side." 

That  time  came  to  John  P.  Hale  when  he  refused  to  do 
the  bidding  of  the  slave  power.  Noble  was  the  stand  he 
took ;  grandly  did  he  sustain  himself,  and  win  the  name  he 
sent  down  to  posterity. 


[From  the  Boston  Traveller,  July  29,  1892.] 

The  dedication  of  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  which  will 
take  place  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  next  week,  will  be  an  occasion 
of  unusual  interest.  The  honor  which  is  paid  his  memory 
is  well  deserved.  In  the  contest  over  slavery,  which  ended 
with  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  he  was  a  brave  and  fearless 
leader.  The  Free  Soil  movement  in  the  national  congress, 
began,  as  it  will  be  remembered,  over  the  passage  of  the 
resolutions  providing  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  without 
recourse  to  the  treaty-making  power,  the  vote  on  which  was 
had  in  the  house  of  representatives  on  the  25th  of  January, 
1845.  The  Democratic  party,  which  had  just  elected  James 
K.  Polk  president,  made  the  support  of  these  resolutions 
the  test  of  party  fealty.  Of  the  ninety-eight  negative  votes 
but  twenty-eight  were  cast  by  those  classed  as  Democrats, 
all  of  whom  were  from  the  free  states.  One  of  these 
twenty-eight  was  John  P.  Hale  of  New  Hampshire,  then 
serving  his  first  term  in  the  house. 

He  was  in  his  thirty-ninth  year,  and  had  only  recently 
been  nominated  by  the  Democrats  of  his  district  for  re-elec- 


204  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

tion.     For  his  disobedience  to  the  orders  of  the  slave  power, 
the  party  leaders  in   New  Hampshire  determined  to  disci 
pline  him,  but  they  rjever  made  a  more  fatal  party  blunder. 
He  was  denounced  as  a  traitor  to  his  party,  a  new  convention 
was  called,  and  another  candidate  nominated,  the  result  of 
the  election  being  that  there  was  no  choice,  and   for  the 
next  two  years  the  district  was  unrepresented  in  congress. 
The  next  year,  1846,  Hale  was  elected  to  the  New  Hamp 
shire  legislature  by  his  Dover  friends,  was  elected  speaker, 
and   then   United  States  senator  for  the  full   term  of   six 
years,  as  an  anti-slavery  man,  and  in  December,  1847,  he 
entered  the  United  States  senate,  the  first  distinctively  anti- 
slavery  member  of  that  body.     He  thus  became  the  recog 
nized  leader  of   the   Free  Sellers   throughout  the  country. 
He  would  doubtless  have  been  their  standard-bearer  in  the 
presidential  campaign  of  1848,  had  not  the  party  decided  to 
take  advantage   of    the   Barnburner  thirst  for  revenge  on 
Lewis  Cass,  and  so  placed  Van  Buren  at  the  head  of  its 
ticket,  but  in  1852  the  Free  Soilers  turned  to  him  as  their 
natural  leader.     He  was  one  of  the  bravest  and  most  fear 
less  champions  of   the  cause  of   human  rights,  and  his  cour 
age,  ability,  and  thorough   steadfastness  in  support  of  free 
dom  and  national  unity  were  of   the  highest  value,  both 
before  and  during  the  Civil  War. 

The  statue  is  the  gift  to  the  state  of  Senator  William  E. 
Chandler,   who    will    formally    present   it.     .....   The 

statue  is  a  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  devoted  and 
patriotic  son  of  the  Granite  state,  and  it  is  fitting  that  it 
should  have  a  place  in  Capitol  park,  by  the  side  of  that 
other  great  son  of  that  state,  Daniel  Webster. 


[From  The  Journal,  Boston,  Mass.,  August  4,  1892.] 

The  ceremonies  at  Concord  yesterday,  in  connection  with 
the  dedication  of  a  monument  to  the  memory  of  John  P. 
Hale,  were  a  fitting  and  impressive  tribute  to  one  of  the 
grandest  figures  in  New  England  history,  a  man  who  could 


APPENDIX.  205 

not  be  driven  or  cajoled  from  his  convictions  of  duty,  and 
who  took  his  stand  for  free  soil,  free  speech,  and  free  men 
at  a  time  when  the  championship  of  those  principles  cost 
something. 


[From  the  Boston  Herald,  August  4,  1892.] 

The  statue  unveiled  at  Concord  yesterday  renders  a  tardy 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the  great  men  of  New 
Hampshire,  its  first  abolition  senator,  one  of  the  first  men 
in  congress  to  labor  for  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  and  a  man 
whom  the  state  rightly  honors  for  his  personal  and  political 
worth.  Senator  Chandler  deserves  the  thanks  of  New  Eng 
land  people  for  erecting  this  statue  to  the  memory  of  his 
distinguished  kinsman,  and  his  speech  on  the  occasion  was 
a  fair  and  just  summary  of  the  place  which  Senator  Hale 
held  in  the  history  of  the  struggle  over  slavery  and  in  sus 
taining  the  efforts  of  his  countrymen  to  secure  its  abolition 
during  the  Civil  War.  Governor  Tut  tie  and  Colonel  Hall 
were  equally  happy  in  their  efforts,  and  the  dedication  of 
this  statue  will  long  be  remembered  as  a  notable  event  in 
the  political  history  of  New  Hampshire. 


[From  the  Boston  Herald,  August  5,  1892.] 

The  early  services  of  John  P.  Hale  in  the  cause  of  free 
dom  are  not  likely  to  be  overestimated.  He  fitted  in  admi 
rably  with  Seward,  Sumner,  and  Wade,  and  supplied  an 
element  of  humor,  in  which  they  were  all  deficient,  to  the 
anti-slavery  debates  of  the  senate.  His  portly  personality 
admirably  accorded  with  his  general  good  nature,  and  he 
could  say  very  sharp  things  without  appearing  malicious  or 
bitter  in  so  doing.  He  so  exasperated  that  queer  character, 
Senator  Foote  of  Mississippi,  one  day,  that  the  latter  told 
him  they  would  hang  him  to  the  nearest  tree  if  he  came 
into  the  southern  state.  Hale  turned  this  upon  him  with 
imperturbable  phlegm,  neither  posing  as  a  possible  martyr 


206  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

nor  showing  any  special  resentment  toward  his  adversary, 
but  treating  him  with  the  ridicule  he  deserved. 


[From  the  Boston  News,  July  29,  1892.] 

One  of  New  Hampshire's  ablest,  and  certainly  one  of  her 
bravest,  statesmen  was  John  P.  Hale.  He  was  in  public 
life  when  it  required  courage  to  openly  denounce  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery,  and  never  shirked  nor  faltered  in  his 
devotion  to  the  cause  he  early  espoused.  Both  before  and 
during  the  Civil  War,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  he  per 
formed  valuable  service  for  the  nation,  and  it  is  fitting  that 
his  memory  should  be  honored.  On  Wednesday  next  a 
statue  will  be  dedicated  at  Concord,  presented  by  Senator 
William  E.  Chandler,  and  being  accepted  by  the  state  will 
stand  through  the  years  to  come  to  call  attention,  not  only 
to  John  P.  Hale,  but  to  the. respect  in  which  he  is  held  by 
those  who  follow  him. 


[From  the  Hartford  (Conn.)  Courant,  August  6,  1892.] 

John  P.  Hale's  statue  should  have  been  standing  in  the 
New  Hampshire  capital  these  twenty  years  past ;  but  much 
better  late  than  never.  He  was  the  first  of  the  anti-slavery 
senators,  and  he  had  a  pretty  lonesome  time  of  it,  politi 
cally,  until  Chase  and  Sumner  arrived  on  the  scene. 

When  the  committees  of  the  senate  were  made  up  at  the 
opening  of  the  session,  he  was  left  out  in  the  cold  alto 
gether.  The  explanation  given  on  the  floor  by  one  of  the 
little  great  men  of  the  day  was,  that  Hale  was  "  outside  all 
healthy  political  organizations."  A  man  of  a  different 
temperament  in  his  place  would  have  lost  his  head  and 
raged,  or  lost  his  pluck  and  moped.  Hale  laughed  and 
waited.  He  was  as  cool,  as  bright,  and  as  irrepressible  as  a 
May  morning.  After  a  little  the  senate  discovered  that  the 
"  Abolitionist"  from  New  Hampshire  was  a  thoroughly  good 
fellow,  and  that  he  had  the  invaluable  faculty  of  being  able 


APPENDIX.  207 

to  make  it  laugh.  He  could  be  serious  enough  on  occasion, 
but  it  was  as  natural  to  him  to  joke  as  to  breathe.  What 
with  his  geniality  and  his  irresistible  drollery,  the  slave 
holders  of  the  senate  presently  found  themselves  distin 
guishing  between  the  man  and  his  opinions,  and  liking  the 
one  as  cordially  as  they  detested  the  other.  In  this  respect 
his  case  presents  a  marked  contrast  to  that  of  Seward.  The 
Southerners  not  only  hated  Seward's  politics,  but  they  hated 
Seward  himself.  He  lacked  Hale's  bonhomie  and  charm ; 
he  was  always  serious. 

But  the  New  Hampshire  man's  jokes  and  stories  did  n't 
make  him  any  the  less  faithful  and  useful  soldier  of  the 
good  cause  of  human  freedom  to  which  he  and  his  great 
comrade  from  New  York  devoted  so  many  years  of  arduous 
service  and  whose  triumph  they  lived  to  see.  Each  had  his 
own  place  and  work,  and  both  deserve  to  be  held  in  grati 
tude  and  honor. 


[From  the  New  York  Times,  August  4,  1892.] 

It  is  fitting  that  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  just  erected 
by  Senator  Chandler,  should  have  a  place  in  the  state  house 
yard  at  Concord,  the  capital  of  the  state  which  he  repre 
sented  at  Washington,  first  as  a  congressman,  and  then  as  a 
senator.  In  no  other  New  Hampshire  man's  life,  not 
excepting  even  Daniel  Webster's,  may  the  people  of  the 
Granite  state  find  solider  ground  for  state  pride.  Mr.  Hale 
was  one  of  the  great  men  of  his  time,  and  that  is  saying 
much,  for  his  public  career  covered  the  period  in  which  was 
fought  out  the  contest  which  culminated  in  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion.  There  doubtless  were  profounder  men  than  Mr. 
Hale  in  that  period — although  he  had  a  strong  and  well- 
disciplined  mind — but  there  was  no  man  of  all  his  contem 
poraries  who  over-matched  him  in  courage  and  resoluteness. 
It  was  by  the  consecration  of  his  powers  to  the  anti-slavery 
cause,  and  by  his  unswerving  adherence  to  what  he  con 
ceived  to  be  the  line  of  his  duty,  that  he  made  himself  a 
man  of  the  nation  before  he  reached  his  fortieth  vear. 


208  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

The  crisis  of  his  life  came  when  as  a  congressman  he 
faced  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  posi 
tion  that  he  took  upon  this  matter  was  regarded  with  dis 
favor  by  his  constituents,  and  he  heard  from  them.  Reply 
ing  to  their  protests,  he  wrote  that  if  they  did  not  approve 
of  his  course  they  would  better  nominate  another  man  to 
be  his  successor.  That  very  thing  they  did.  They  had 
already  made  Mr.  Hale  a  candidate  for  reelection,  but  they 
held  a  second  convention,  in  which  they  repudiated  him, 
denouncing  him  as  a  traitor  to  his  party.  Not  a  word  of 
regret  came  from  Mr.  Hale  for  the  course  which  had  pre 
cipitated  this  action,  but  when  congress  adjourned  he  went 
home  and  announced  himself  as  an  independent  candidate. 
He  failed  of  election,  but  so  did  the  regularly  nominated 
candidate  of  his  party,  and  Mr.  Hale  was  well  satisfied,  see 
ing  that  he  had  defeated  the  Democratic  party  in  a  fair  con 
test  in  which  he  had  squarely  met  the  issue.  This  outcome 
of  the  campaign  was  far  more  than  he  had  hoped  for  at 
first.  In  the  beginning  he  had  regarded  himself  more  as  a 
propagandist  than  as  a  candidate. 

It  was  very  early  in  this  campaign  that  he  had  that 
memorable  meeting  with  Franklin  Pierce  in  the  Old  North 
church  at  Concord.  Mr.  Hale  had  been  invited  by  a  few 
of  his  friends  to  make  a  speech  in  vindication  of  his  course 
in  congress.  He  found  the  church  packed  with  an  audience 
that  was  far  from  friendly  to  him.  His  address  took  the 
form  of  an  out-and-out  anti-slavery  argument.  Not  a  word 
of  apology  was  in  it;  not  the  sign  of  an  acknowledgment 
of  error ;  not  one  concessionary  sentence.  Mr.  Pierce  fol 
lowed  with  a  review  of  Mr.  Hale's  address — a  review  full  of 
spirited  denunciation,  at  times  almost  cruel  in  its  severity. 
At  the  close  came  a  taunt  in  which  Mr.  Hale  was  reminded 
of  his  prompt  repudiation  by  his  constituents,  and  was 
warned  that  persistence  in  his  course  would  result  in  his 
permanent  retirement  from  public  life.  Mr.  Hale  could 
hardly  contain  himself  as  these  last  words  were  speaking. 
As  Mr.  Pierce  finished,  he  leaped  upon  the  seat  of  the  pew 


APPENDIX.  209 

where  he  had  been  sitting,  faced  the  great  audience,  and 
burst  into  speech.  He  spoke  for  about  five  minutes,  and 
one  who  heard  him  has  lately  said  that  in  that  five  minutes 
he  was  moved  by  the  "most  marvellous  eloquence  that  ever 
fell  from  human  lips."  In  closing,  Mr.  Hale  said : 

"When  filial  affection  shall  erect  a  humble  monument  to  show 
where  rest  my  mortal  remains,  I  wish  upon  it  no  other  epitaph  than 
this  :  '  Here  lies  one  who  surrendered  office,  place,  and  power  rather 
than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery.1 " 

The  next  year  Mr.  Hale  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
legislature,  and  was  made  speaker  of  the  house.  The  same 
year  he  was  elected  United  States  senator  by  a  combination 
of  men  of  different  parties.  He  was  but  forty-one  years 
old  when  he  entered  the  United  States  senate,  the  only  one 
of  his  kind,  the  sole  representative  in  that  body  of  the  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  of  the  country.  Referring  to  Mr.  Hale's 
election  as  speaker  of  the  New  Hampshire  house  of  repre 
sentatives,  and  anticipating  his  election  as  United  States 
senator,  the  poet  Whittier  wrote  a  letter  in  1846,  in  which 
he  said : 

"He  has  succeeded,  and  his  success  has  broken  the  spell  which  has 
hitherto  held  reluctant  Democracy  in  the  embrace  of  slavery.  The 
tide  of  anti-slavery  feeling,  long  held  back  by  the  dams  and  dikes  of 
party,  has  at  last  broken  over  all  barriers  and  is  working  down  from 
your  northern  mountains  upon  the  slave-cursed  South,  as  if  Niagara 
stretched  its  foam  and  thunder  along  the  whole  length  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  Let  the  first  wave  of  that  northern  flood  as  it  dashes 
against  the  walls  of  the  Capitol  bear  thither  for  the  first  time  an  anti- 
slavery  senator." 

No  doubt  this  language  seemed  extravagant  to  those  who 
read  it  when  it  was  newly  written,  but  certainly  it  was 
prophetic.  The  young  man  who  had  made  so  bold  and  gal 
lant  a  fight  in  his  own  state  was  destined  for  a  great  and 
influential  career  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States.  The 
story  of  his  work  at  Washington  is  an  important  part  of 
the  history  of  the  country.  Fearing  nobody,  always  ready 
14 


210  THE  HALE  STATUE. 

to  meet  an  emergency,  invariably  earnest,  intrepid,  and 
aggressive,  he  justified  the  expectations  which  his  election 
as  a  senator  had  aroused.  Excepting  two  years,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  senate  up  to  1865,  so  that  it  was  permitted 
him  to  see  the  work  completed  in  the  inauguration  of  which 
he  had  participated.  He  was  fortunate  enough,  too,  to  live 
to  know  that  he,  who  at  one  time  had  been  despised  and 
hated  by  thousands  of  persons  all  over  the  country,  had  at 
last  won  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  great  American 
people  by  his  manly  independence  and  his  magnificent 
courage. 

The  lesson  of  Mr.  Hale's  life  is  easily  read.  His  career 
is  a  striking  instance  of  the  high  regard  which  the  common 
people  have  for  men  who  are  fearless  in  the  exercise  of  the 
functions  of  public  office.  The  average  American  citizen 
has  no  place  in  his  heart  for  the  coward,  but  he  esteems 
nothing  too  good  to  give  the  man  who  is  willing  to  sacrifice 
himself  rather  than  forego  a  principle. 


[From  the  Brooklyn  (N.  Y.)  Eagle,  August  4,  1892.] 

A  bronze  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  presented  to  the  state 
of  New  Hampshire  by  his  son-in-law,  Senator  William  E. 
Chandler,  was  yesterday  unveiled  at  Concord.  Hale  was  a 
Democrat  when  the  state  produced,  as  it  does  now,  some  of 
the  stoutest  Democrats  anywhere  to  be  found.  At  the 
time  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  war  with  Mexico, 
he  left  his  party  and  was  afterward  classed  as  an  Abolition 
ist,  though  he  was  more  practical  than  the  Extremists,  who 
insisted  on  immediate  emancipation  or  non-communion  with 
the  Union.  The  Abolitionists  builded  a  good  deal  better 
than  they  knew,  although  somewhat  differently,  as  is  apt  to 
happen  with  the  best  of  men.  Their  agitation  kept  alive 
the  anti-slavery  sentiment  until  its  realization  fell  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  applied  to  it  the  political  forces  which 
the  Abolitionists  rejected,  and  the  institution  was  finally 
destroyed,  incidentally  to  the  defense  and  salvation  of  the 


APPENDIX.  211 

Union  which  they  denounced.  Hale  was  an  able,  accom 
plished,  eloquent  man,  who  was  appreciated  and  liked  by 
many  who  differed  most  widely  with  him  in  opinion.  As 
some  of  the  bitterest  of  the  Abolitionists,  contrary  to  their 
expectations,  lived  to  see  freedom  universal,  so  now,  in  the 
better  days  of  a  restored  brotherhood  of  free  states,  the 
Southerner  from  the  remotest  boundary  of  the  Gulf,  travel 
ing  among  the  White  hills  of  New  Hampshire,  will  rejoice, 
as  he  looks  at  the  figure  of  John  P.  Hale,  that  there  is  not 
a  slave  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 


[From  the  Utica  (N.  Y.)  Herald,  August  5,  1892.] 

The  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  presented  to  New  Hamp 
shire  by  Senator  William  E.  Chandler,  was  unveiled  in  the 
state  house  yard  at  Concord,  Wednesday,  with  appropriate 
ceremonies  and  in  the  presence  of  a  distinguished  company. 
It  is  a  fitting  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  first  distinctly 
anti-slavery  advocate  who  ever  entered  the  United  States 
senate.  He  took  his  seat  in  December,  1847,  and  stood 
alone  as  the  champion  of  a  great  cause  until  joined  by 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  two  years  later,  and  by  Charles  Sumner 
in  December,  1851. 


[From  the  New  York  Tribune,  August  4,  1892.] 

Not  only  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  but  the  whole 
country  is  under  obligation  to  Senator  William  E.  Chand 
ler  for  the  gift  of  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  which  was 
unveiled  at  Concord  yesterday.  There  are  no  more  elo 
quent  voices  in  behalf  of  patriotism  and  good  government 
than  the  echoes  of  those  which,  when  the  great  cause  of 
human  rights  was  on  trial,  rang  out  clearly  and  fearlessly 
on  the  side  of  humanity  and  justice,  and  refused  to  be 
silenced  by  political  proscription.  They  speak  to  us  like 
the  deeds  of  those  who  died  at  Gettysburg,  as  the  heroes  of 
Marathon  spoke  to  imperial  Athens. 


212  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

[From  the  New  York  Press,  August  5, 1892.] 

The  speech  of  Senator  William  E.  Chandler,  on  the  occa 
sion  of  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  John  P.  Hale  at  Con 
cord,  was  a  strong  and  patriotic  address,  worthy  of  the  fear 
less  champion  of  human  rights  whom  it  commemorated. 
The  New  Hampshire  senator  uttered  a  great  truth  in  a 
striking  form  when  he  said  :  "  Men  who  breathe  their  spirit 
into  the  institutions  of  their  country,  or  stamp  their  char 
acters  upon  the  pillars  of  the  age,  can  never  die."  A  grate 
ful  people  may  rear  visible  memorials  to  men  of  this  type ; 
but  their  truest  memorial  is  the  Republic  they  helped  to 
make,  riot  merely  great  in  a  material  sense,  but  grand  in  a 
moral  sense.  John  P.  Hale  was  one  of  the  most  courag 
eous  of  the  little  band  that  boldly  defied  the  insolent  slave 
power  in  congress ;  the  effect  of  the  example  of  those  eman 
cipators  and  regenerators  was  potent  and  permanent.  The 
good  they  did  is  immortal. 


[From  the  Syracuse  (N.  Y.)  Journal,  August  6,  1892.] 

The  monument  erected  this  week  to  the  memory  of  John 
P.  Hale,  in  the  state  house  yard  at  Concord,  was  the  gift  of 
his  son-in-law,  Senator  William  E.  Chandler,  to  the  state  of 
New  Hampshire.  The  tribute  conveyed  in  this  memorial 
is  most  richly  deserved.  Mr.  Hale  was  a  pioneer  Abolition 
ist,  and  the  first  distinctively  anti-slavery  man  to  be  chosen 
to  the  United  States  senate,  where  he  led  in  the  warfare 
against  human  slavery.  He  entered  the  senate  in  Decem 
ber,  1847,  and  stood  alone  in  that  body  in  defense  of  man 
hood  and  liberty,  till  Salmon  P.  Chase  joined  him  in 
December,  1849,  and  Charles  Sumner  in  December,  1851. 
*  *  *  He  stands  unchallenged  as  New  Hampshire's 
greatest  orator,  next  to  Daniel  Webster,  and  his  service  in 
the  anti-slavery  cause  was  of  the  highest  value. 


APPENDIX.  213 

[From  the  Philadelphia  (Pa.)  Press,  August  4,  1892.] 

The  unveiling  of  a  statue  in  Concord,  N.  H.,  yesterday,  of 
John  Parker  Hale,  will  serve  to  recall  to  the  memory  of  the 
American  public  a  man  who  acted  a  prominent  part  in  the 
great  slavery  conflict  which  waged  so  fiercely  between  1840 
and  1860.  It  is  less  than  nineteen  years  ago  since  Mr. 
Hale  died  ;  but  so  rapidly  is  history  made  in  these  days  that 
the  majority  of  men  in  active  life  now  will  be  compelled  to 
ask  why  he  deserves  the  honor  of  a  statue  erected  to  his 
memory  in  the  capitol  yard  of  his  native  state.  Even  this 
distinction  might  have  been  denied  him  had  not  the  admira 
tion  of  Senator  Chandler  led  him  to  perform  this  duty  to  a 
man  who  reflected  such  honor  upon  New  Hampshire. 

The  present  generation  can  scarcely  realize  the  heat  and 
bitterness  of  the  conflict  with  slavery,  or  the  kind  of  men 
needed  to  withstand  its  encroachments.  Southern  states 
men  well  understood  the  spirit  of  the  North  in  those  days, 
and  its  eagerness  to  develop  the  resources  of  this  section 
and  take  advantage  of  the  marvellous  opportunities  for 
growing  rich.  The  South  ruled  the  country  with  an  iron 
hand.  Its  threats  of  dissolving  the  Union  were  generally 
effective  in  forcing  congressmen  from  the  North  to  do  its 
will;  for  few  constituencies  were  brave  and  far-sighted 
enough  to  support  an  intrepid  senator  or  representative  who 
ventured  to  cross  swords  with  a  Southern  fire-eater.  His 
tory  proves  that  the  title  of  "  doughface  "  was  well  earned 
by  too  many  Northern  congressmen. 

But  John  Parker  Hale  was  one  of  the  few  exceptions. 
He  shrank  neither  before  the  crack  of  the  slave-owner's 
whip  nor  the  anger  of  his  constituents.  He  dared  to  oppose 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  because  he  believed  it  was  sought 
in  order  to  strengthen  and  perpetuate  slavery ;  and  he  had 
the  principle  to  tell  his  people  that  they  must  choose 
another  man  to  represent  them  if  they  wished  him  to  sup 
port  that  measure.  It  was  a  small  thing  to  him  that  his 
district  withdrew  his  renomination  to  congress,  and  that  he 


214  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

was  defeated  as  an  independent  candidate  on  that  issue. 
Like  a  sagacious  statesman,  he  could  look  beyond  the  next 
election  and  leave  his  vindication  to  the  future.  It  came  in 
a  few  years,  when  the  change  which  was  gradually  spread 
ing  over  the  North  on  the  subject  of  slavery  resulted  in  his 
election  to  the  United  States  senate,  where,  with  a  brief 
interval,  he  remained  until  1865,  when  the  conflict  was 
ended,  freedom  had  triumphed,  and  the  slave  was  a  free 
man. 

The  rugged  features  of  Mr.  Hale's  political  principles 
made  him  a  marked  character  in  the  forum  of  debate.  No 
man  who  sat  in  congress  from  the  North  was  more  feared 
by  the  defenders  of  slavery.  He  could  not  be  cajoled  or 
intimidated.  Fear  for  his  own  interests  never  influenced 
him.  He  believed  slavery  to  be  a  wrong ;  and  he  stood,  like 
one  of  the  granite  hills  of  his  native  state,  immovable 
before  the  assaults  of  its  friends  in  the  North  as  well  as  in 
the  South.  The  specious  arguments  of  those  who  upheld 
the  "  peculiar  institution  "  will  grow  moldy  and  musty  with 
dust ;  but  the  declaration  of  John  P.  Hale  for  "  free  speech, 
free  men,  and  free  soil "  will  never  cease  to  re-echo  through 
the  corridors  of  time. 

It  is  well  to  recall  such  a  life  as  Mr.  Hale's,  and  by  pay 
ing  distinguished  honor  to  his  memory  prove  to  young  men 
that  devotion  to  principle  is  certain  to  receive  its  just  recog 
nition.  The  men  who  defended  human  bondage  have  few 
to  do  them  honor  now,  and  the  record  of  most  of  them  is 
forgotten.  But  the  memory  of  John  P.  Hale  will  grow 
brighter  the  further  the  nation  recedes  from  the  events  in 
which  he  acted  so  conspicuous  a  part.  The  dedication  of  a 
statue  in  his  honor  comes  at  an  appropriate  time,  for  in  the 
same  week  it  occurs  100,000  ex-slaves  and  their  descendants 
are  permitted  to  prove  their  manhood  by  exercising  the 
inestimable  privilege  of  the  suffrage  in  Alabama. 


APPENDIX.  215 

[From  the  Portland  Oregonian.'] 

John  Parker  Hale  Chandler,  a  boy  of  seven,  unveiled  a 
statue  of  his  grandfather,  John  P.  Hale,  on  the  public 
square  of  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  last  Wednesday, 
presented  to  the  city  by  his  father,  Senator  Chandler. 
John  P.  Hale  should  not  have  waited  so  long  for  a  memo 
rial,  nor  should  his  city  and  state  have  waited  for  filial  solic 
itude  to  provide  it.  He  was  the  worthiest  son  of  his  state 
and  his  name  is  associated  in  a  peculiar  way  with  a  vital 
crisis  in  national  history. 

John  P.  Hale  was  something  more  than  the  first  Aboli 
tionist  in  the  United  States  senate,  where  he  fought  the 
battle  for  freedom  for  two  years  before  he  was  joined  by 
Chase  and  for  four  years  before  Sumner  came.  He  was  the 
first  Abolitionist  in  public  life  after  John  Quincy  Adams ;  the 
first  of  a  long  line  of  conscientious  Democrats,  from  1844 
to  1861,  to  sacrifice  public  office  and  break  party  ties  for 
the  sake  of  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  He  did  not 
enter  the  senate  till  1847.  Three  years  before,  he  fought 
the  gag  law  for  anti-slavery  petitions  in  the  house  of  rep 
resentatives,  as  Adams  had  fought  it  for  eight  years  in  the 
senate.  Adams  died  in  1846,  and  for  the  last  two  years  he 
had  a  constant  and  courageous  ally  in  the  representative 
from  New  Hampshire,  in  the  contest  whose  brunt  he  had  so 
long  borne  alone.  Indeed,  circumstances  made  Hale's 
opposition  more  dramatic  and  effective  than  Adams's.  The 
event  which  finally  determined  his  break  with  the  Demo 
cratic  party  attracted  popular  attention  more  sharply  and 
gave  the  cause  of  abolition  more  conspicuous  and  solid 
standing  than  all  the  brave  and  patient  work  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  representative. 

This  event  occurred  in  1845.  The  New  Hampshire  leg 
islature  had  instructed  representatives  of  the  state  in  con 
gress  to  support  the  annexation  of  Texas.  Hale  was  then 
in  congress  and  a  candidate  for  reelection.  His  instant 
response  to  the  resolution  was  a  "tetter  refusing  to  obey  the 


216  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

instructions  and  condemning  annexation.  At  a  state  Dem 
ocratic  convention,  six  weeks  later,  his  name  was  stricken 
from  the  ticket  and  another  substituted.  He  was  made  an 
Independent  candidate,  and  the  election  that  spring  was  the 
opening  skirmish  in  the  long  contest  over  the  slavery  ques-, 
tion.  There  was  failure  to  elect,  and  the  contest  was 
renewed,  at  special  elections,  four  times  between  March, 
1845,  and  March,  1846.  During  all  this  year  Hale  can 
vassed  the  state  vigorously,  with  Franklin  Pierce  for  his 
chief  opponent,  taking  what  was  then  very  advanced  ground 
on  the  slavery  question.  It  was  in  a  joint  debate  with 
Pierce  in  this  canvass  that  he  made  the  memorable  retort  to 
the  taunt  that  his  constituents  had  repudiated  him  :  "  When 
filial  affection  shall  erect  an  humble  monument  to  show  where 
rest  my  mortal  remains,  I  wish  upon  it  no  other  epitaph  than 
this :  '  Here  lies  one  who  surrendered  office,  place,  and 
power  rather  than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery.'  "  It  is 
not  stated  whether  Senator  Chandler  placed  this  insciption 
upon  the  pedestal  of  the  statue  he  presented  to  the  city  of 
Concord.  It  is  permanently  preserved  in  the  history  of  the 
country.  It  was  really  this  contest  that  made  Hale  sena 
tor.  The  three-cornered  contest  of  Whigs,  Independents, 
and  Democrats  prevented  the  election  of  a  Democratic  gov 
ernor  in  March,  1846.  The  Whigs  and  Independents  had  a 
majority  in  the  legislature  and  fused,  making  Hale  speaker 
and  electing  a  Whig  governor.  A  little  later  the  same 
legislature  elected  Hale  senator.  He  remained  in  the  senate, 
with  an  intermission  of  two  years,  from  1853  to  1855,  till 
1865,  and  lived  until  1873,  his  active  public  life  covering 
the  whole  anti-slavery  conflict,  from  its  weak  beginnings  to 
its  triumphant  conclusion. 

For  nearly  ten  years  from  the  death  of  Adams,  Hale  was 
regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  anti-slavery  party  in  the 
country.  It  nominated  him  for  president  in  1847,  though 
he  refused  and  supported  Van  Buren,  the  Barnburner  candi 
date  of  the  following  year.  He  was  a  Free  Soil  candidate  in 
1852  and  got  nearly  160,000  votes.  He  went  to  the  senate 


APPENDIX.  217 

once  more  as  a  Free  Soiler,  but  the  Republican  party  was 
born  and  Fremont  carried  the  state  in  1856.  Hale's  last 
election  in  1858  was  as  a  Republican,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
pillars  of  the  party  in  congress  all  through  the  war. 

Hale's  title  to  eminence  in  the  anti-slavery  conflict  was 
that  of  a  pioneer.  Less  cultured  than  Sumner,  less  power 
ful  than  Chase,  he  was  a  clear  thinker,  a  hard  fighter,  and 
a  most  courageous  follower  of  his  moral  convictions.  He 
did  his  work  when  work  was  most  needed,  and  when  one 
man  counted  for  more  than  a  hundred  later.  None  of  the 
greater  men  who  served  the  cause  of  freedom  afterward 
merits  tenderer  and  more  honorable  remembrance  than  this 
man,  who  fought  its  battles  alone  in  a  hostile  senate  as 
John  Quincy  Adams  fought  them  in  a  hostile  house  of  rep 
resentatives.  They  were  the  two  pioneers  of  freedom. 


[From  The  Post  Intelligencer,  Seattle,  Wash.,  August  13,  1892.] 

On  the  3d  inst.  a  fine  statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  presented 
to  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  by  United  States  Senator 
Chandler,  was  unveiled  at  Concord.  The  growing  genera 
tion  need  to  be  told  the  story  of  John  P.  Hale's  career,  for 
it  is  worth  the  telling  in  these  sordid  days  when  statesman 
ship  too  often  stands  for  political  sycophancy  and  petty 
selfishness.  John  P.  Hale  early  in  life  achieved  brilliant 
success  as  a  lawyer ;  he  was  a  handsome  man,  possessed  of 
great  natural  gifts  of  wit  and  humor ;  he  was  genial  and 
popular,  and  was  the  favorite  orator  of  the  Democratic 
party  of  his  day ;  he  was  the  associate  and  friend  of  Frank 
lin  Pierce,  who  became  president  in  1852.  Mr.  Hale  was 
elected  representative  to  congress,  and  was  the  idol  of  his 
party  in  New  Hampshire  until  he  was  called  upon  in  1845 
to  support  the  forcible  annexation  of  Texas  and  an  unjust 
war  with  Mexico,  in  order  to  extend  the  dominion  of  human 
chattel  slavery  and  to  bring  more  slave  states  into  the 
Union.  Then  Mr.  Hale  rebelled,  and  wrote  his  famous 
Texas  letter,  for  which  he  was  expelled  from  his  party. 


THE    HALE    STATUE. 

Mr.  Hale  bluntly  told  his  constituents  that  they  must 
choose  another  man  to  represent  them  if  they  wished  him 
to  support  the  annexation  of  Texas.  His  district  took  him 
at  his  word  and  withdrew  his  nomination  to  congress,  and 
he  was  defeated  as  an  independent  candidate  on  that  issue. 

The  vast  moral  courage  of  Mr.  Hale's  act  can  hardly  be 
appreciated  at  this  distance  of  nearly  a  half  a  century  from 
its  date.  The  Whig  party  of  the  North  at  that  day  con 
tained  some  able  men  vigorously  opposed  to  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  but  there  were  very  few  in  the  Democratic  party, 
for  Martin  Van  Buren  had  just  been  beaten  for  the  Demo 
cratic  nomination  in  the  national  convention  of  1844,  solely 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  once  expressed  himself  in  very 
moderate  language  as  opposed  to  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  Henry  Clay,  who  had  expressed  a  similar  opinion,  had 
just  been  defeated  for  election  for  the  presidency,  in  the 
splendid  maturity  of  his  fame  and  popularity,  by  obscure 
James  K.  Polk.  The  presidential  election  had  turned  on 
the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  Demo 
cratic  victory  over  Clay  had  been  won  on  this  issue. 

When  Mr.  Hale  rebelled  against  this  test  of  party  fealty 
he  knew  he  was  parting  with  a  splendid  popularity ;  he 
knew  that  by  this  act  he  became  a  political  outcast ;  there 
was  no  home  for  him  within  either  of  the  great  parties,  for 
the  defeat  of  1844  had  silenced  nearly  all  its  great  anti- 
slavery  voices.  After  1844  Webster's  voice  lost  all  its  old 
anti-slavery  ring,  so  that  by  1850  we  find  him  bidding  for 
the  presidency  by  helping  Henry  Clay  carry  the  compro 
mise  measures,  including  the  fugitive  slave  law  of  that  year. 
In  1845,  when  Hale  revolted,  there  was  no  home  for  him  in 
either  of  the  great  political  camps,  and  he  knew  it;  he 
knew  that  this  act  would  lose  him  the  friendship  of  Pierce 
and  all  the  party  leaders  in  New  Hampshire,  and  yet  he 
did  not  hesitate ;  he  turned  his  back  on  fame  and  friend 
ships  ;  he  accepted  obloquy  and  insult  and  courageously 
bided  his  time.  It  was  not  much  for  a  fanatic  to  do,  but 
Hale  was  not  of  the  fanatic  breed  ;  his  training  as  a  lawyer, 


APPENDIX.  219 

his  early  convivial  habits,  his  genial  temper  and  social  tal 
ents,  his  political  training  as  a  Democratic  politician,  had 
made  him  anything  but  a  man  of  sombre,  fanatical  type. 
His  act  was  due  to  the  natural  benevolence  and  kindness  of 
his  nature ;  he  abhorred  slavery,  and  he  would  not  load  his 
conscience  with  any  responsibility  for  the  acquisition  of  a 
single  foot  of  slave  territory.  He  had  never  been  an  Abo 
litionist;  he  had  always  been  willing  to  give  to  the  old 
slave  states  all  that  the  constitution  had  secured  to  them, 
and  trusted,  like  Clay,  to  time  and  the  decent  opinions  of 
mankind  to  lead  up  to  gradual  emancipation  by  the  states 
or  by  the  nation  sanctioned  by  the  states  ;  but  when  it 
came  to  enlarging  the  area  of  the  evil,  Mr.  Hale  revolted, 
and  always  remained  a  rebel.  When  Hale  revolted,  among 
the  few  writers  that  blessed  him  for  his  moral  courage  was 
the  poet  Whittier,  who  wrote  : 

"  God  bless  New  Hampshire  ;   from  her  granite  peaks 
Once  more  the  voice  of  Stark  and  Langdon  speaks." 

From  this  time  forward  Mr.  Hale's  voice  was  heard  pro 
testing  against  the  sale  of  slaves  under  Federal  law  in  the 
District  of  Columbia ;  against  flogging  in  the  navy  ;  against 
the  enslavement  or  degradation  of  either  the  bodies  or  the 
souls  of  human  beings  of  any  race,  color,  or  condition.  Mr. 
Hale's  day  of  triumph  came  at  last.  He  led  the  forlorn 
hope  of  the  Free  Soil  National  party  in  1852 ;  he  was 
elected  three  times  to  the  United  States  senate,  and  was 
United  States  minister  to  Spain.  He  died,  full  of  years 
and  honors,  surrounded  by  troops  of  friends  who  venerated 
him  for  the  noble  object  lesson  of  moral  courage  in  political 
life  that  his  career  had  furnished. 

The  glory  of  Mr.  Hale  is  that  he  was  an  anti-slavery  man 
when  the  courage  of  his  convictions  stood  for  the  complete 
sacrifice  of  all  the  earnings  of  a  brilliant  political  past  in 
the  ranks  of  a  party  that  had  always  honored  him  and  was 
ready  to  give  him  further  honor,  but 


220  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

"  He  scorned  their  gifts  of  fame,  and  power,  and  gold, 
And  humbly  joined  him  to  the  weaker  part, 
Fanatic  named,  and  fool,  yet  well  content 
So  he  could  be  the  nearer  to  God's  heart, 
And  feel  its  solemn  pulses  sending  blood 
Through  all  the  wide-spread  veins  of  endless  good." 


[From  The  Bee,  Omaha,  Neb.,  August  7,  1892.] 

Less  than  forty  years  ago  the  name  of  John  P.  Hale  was 
on  the  lips  of  every  American,  for  his  fiery  denunciation  of 
his  party  in  its  annexation  of  Texas,  and  subserviency  to  the 
growing  slave  party  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compro 
mise.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  anti-slavery  agitators  in 
the  history  of  America,  but  his  memory  has  almost  passed 
away.  Last  week  a  statue  of  this  man  was  presented  to 
the  state  of  New  Hampshire  by  Senator  Chandler,  and  the 
celebration  of  that  event  will  serve  to  awaken  in  the  minds 
of  men  a  knowledge  of  one  of  the  really  courageous  men  of 
American  history. 


[From  the  Manchester  (N".  H.)  Mirror  and  American.] 

John  P.  Hale  was  not  a  military  hero.  He  was  not  a 
matchless  orator.  He  was  not  a  great  statesman.  But  in 
the  long  list  of  the  illustrious  sons  of  New  Hampshire  there 
is  scarcely  another  name  which  shines  with  greater  or  more 
enduring  lustre  than  his.  He  was  a  strong,  well-balanced 
man,  of  sublime  courage,  of  thorough  honesty,  of  unwaver 
ing  faith,  and  of  unfailing  sagacity.  He  was  one  of  the 
few  who  instinctively  go  to  the  front  when  truth  needs  a 
champion  and  righteousness  a  defender,  whose  leadership  is 
gladly  accepted  because  they  inspire  faith  in  their  sincerity 
and  confidence  in  their  capacity,  and  who  lead  so  steadily 
and  successfully  that  they  command  the  respect  and  admira 
tion  even  of  their  opponents. 

Mr.  Hale  was  born  in  Rochester,  March  31,  1806  ;  was 


APPENDIX.  221 

educated  at  Bowdoin  college  with  the  class  of  1827,  and 
read  law  in  Dover,  where  he  began  the  practice  of  his  pro 
fession  in  1830.  He  grew  to  manhood  under  Democratic 
teachings,  and  upon  reaching  his  majority  was  identified 
with  the  Democratic  party,  which  promptly  recognized  his 
ability  and  responded  to  his  desire  for  political  preferment. 
In  1832  he  represented  Dover  in  the  state  legislature  ;  two 
years  afterwards  he  was  appointed  United  States  district 
attorney,  and  in  1843,  when  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  he 
was  elected  to  congress.  He  served  one  term,  and  was  re- 
nominated  ;  but  before  the  canvass  opened  he  took  occasion 
to  repudiate  the  party  doctrine  upon  the  slavery  question, 
and  a  second  Democratic  convention  was  called,  which 
denounced  him  as  a  traitor  and  nominated  another  man  in 
his  stead.  He  then  announced  himself  as  an  Independent 
candidate,  and  appealed  to  the  people  of  his  district  to  elect 
him  as  a  Free  Soil  Democrat.  He  received  more  than 
3,000  votes,  but  was  defeated.  The  next  year  Dover 
returned  him  to  the  house  of  representatives  at  Concord,  in 
which  the  Whigs  and  Free  Soilers  outnumbered  the  reg 
ular  Democrats.  A  combination  of  these  parties  resulted 
in  making  him  speaker,  and  later  on  electing  him  United 
States  senator,  while  the  Whig  candidate  for  governor, 
Anthony  Colby,  was  elected,  there  having  been  no  choice 
by  the  people. 

At  the  end  of  his  first  term  in  the  senate,  the  Democrats 
controlled  the  legislature,  and  he  was  retired ;  but  in  1855 
he  was  again  elected  to  fill  an  unexpired  term,  and  served 
until  1865,  when  President  Lincoln  appointed  him  minister 
to  Spain.  In  1869  he  returned,  with  his  health  much  im 
paired,  and  died  Nov.  18,  1873.  In  1852  he  was  the  can 
didate  of  the  Free  Soil  party  for  president. 

When  Mr.  Hale  severed  his  connection  with  the  Dem 
ocratic  party,  it  was  at  the  height  of  its  power  in  the  state 
and  nation,  and  only  the  eye  of  faith  could  see  any  pros 
pect  that  its  grasp  would  be  broken,  while  the  Free  Soilers 
•were  so  few  and  feeble  that  neither  Democrats  nor  Whigs 


222  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

regarded  them  with  anything  but  contempt.  In  1841,  of  a 
total  vote  of  51,689  in  New  Hampshire,  the  Democrats 
cast  29,116,  the  Whigs  21,230,  and  the  Free  Soilers  but 
1,273,  and  four  years  later  the  Free  Soil  ticket  received  less 
than  6,000. 

To  all  appearances,  a  man  like  John  P.  Hale  had  but  to 
stay  with  the  Democratic  party  to  reach  any  post  of  honor 
to  which  he  might  aspire,  while  to  leave  it  and  defy  it  was 
to  invite  defeat  and  humiliation  through  life.  But  he 
neither  stayed  nor  stopped.  As  soon  as  it  became  apparent 
that  the  party  with  which  he  was  allied,  and  of  which  he 
was  a  leader,  was  to  become  the  agent  of  the  slave  power 
and  be  used  to  support  the  South  in  its  aggressions,  as  soon 
as  he  saw  that  Democracy  was  going  wrong  deliberately, 
persistently,  and  hopelessly,  he  left  it,  and,  without  count 
ing  cost  or  considering  consequences,  cast  his  lot  with  the 
despised  Free  Soilers,  and  from  that  time  on,  through  all 
the  struggles  of  the  party  of  freedom,  he  was  one  of  the 
bravest  of  its  captains,  one  of  the  wisest  of  its  counsellors, 
one  of  the  stanchest  and  strongest  of  its  supporters. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  he  stood  for  the  awakened 
conscience,  the  emancipated  judgment,  the  love  of  liberty, 
and  the  loyalty  to  right  of  the  people  of  New  Hampshire 
and  of  the  entire  North,  for  his  fame  was  as  wide  as  the 
continent,  and  his  followers  were  wherever  freedom  had  a 
friend.  At  every  turn  the  slaveholders  and  their  northern 
allies  found  him  equipped,  fearless,  and  ready  for  combat. 
Defeat,  and  there  was  little  but  defeat  for  the  anti-slavery 
cause  for  two  decades,  only  nerved  him  to  new  endeavors, 
and  success  always  inspired  him  to  new  advances.  He 
never  retreated,  never  parleyed,  never  compromised.  At 
all  times,  in  all  places,  he  dared  fight  for  the  right,  and  he 
fought  as  stoutly  when  the  odds  were  overwhelmingly 
against  him  as  when  the  advantage  was  in  his  favor.  In 
this,  in  his  moral  courage,  was  the  grandeur  of  his  char 
acter,  and  in  this  respect  he  had  few  peers  among  the  pub 
lic  men  of  his  time.  A  state  honors  itself  when  it  does 


APPENDIX.  223 

homage  to  the  memory  of  such  a  man  as  John  P.  Hale,  and 
New  Hampshire  may  well  congratulate  herself  that,  through 
the  generosity  of  William  E.  Chandler,  a  successor  in  the 
senate,  she  is  given  an  opportunity  to  testify  now  and  in  all 
the  coming  time  her  admiration  for  the  character,  and  her 
appreciation  of  the  services,  of  John  P.  Hale,  the  gifted, 
gallant,  and  unswerving  champion  of  freedom. 


[From  the  Manchester  (N.  H.)  Union,  August  3,  1892.] 

It  is  fifty-three  years  since  John  P.  Hale  took  the  unex 
pected  step  which  separated  him  from  his  former  political 
associates,  turned  politics  in  New  Hampshire  topsy-turvy, 
and  led,  by  a  much  shorter  path  than  he  could  have  fore 
seen,  to  the  United  States  senate.  Half  a  century  is  a  long 
time  in  the  history  of  party  politics.  In  that  time  the 
actors  of  a  given  period  pass  from  the  scene.  Of  the  lead 
ers  in  New  Hampshire  politics  who  were  surprised,  dis 
appointed,  maddened,  or  encouraged  by  Hale's  independent 
course  in  1845,  not  one  remains.  Those  who  blamed  and 
those  who  praised  have  alike  passed  away,  and  the  issues  of 
that  time  have  passed  with  them.  Much  of  intensity,  per 
haps  something  of  bitterness,  in  politics  still  remain,  and  must 
remain  so  long  as  men  differ  and  parties  struggle  for  the 
mastery;  but  such  opposition  as  Hale  met  from  the  Demo 
cratic  party  of  his  day,  and  such  misrepresentation  and  con 
tumely  as  honorable  and  conscientious  Democrats  suffered  in 
their  turn  a  few  years  later,  are,  it  is  hoped,  buried  forever 
with  the  dead  past.  Hale's  special  greatness  lies  in  the  fact 
that  he  stood  by  his  convictions  when,  for  all  that  he  or  any 
one  else  could  see,  it  meant  the  blasting  of  what  promised  to 
be  a  brilliant  future.  In  this  respect  he  differed  widely  from 
others  who  afterwards  attained  to  equal  prominence  and 
were  more  abundantly  rewarded,  but  who  waited  before 
casting  their  lot  with  the  new  movement  until  they  were 
sure  that  the  party  that  grew  from  it  had  control  of  the 


224  THE   HALE  STATTJE. 

loaves  and  fishes.  He  was  not  the  earliest  opponent  of 
negro  slavery ;  but  it  was  his  fortune,  through  an  unex 
pected  turn  in  the  political  tide,  to  be  the  first  Free  Soiler 
in  the  United  States  senate,  and  as  such  he  stood  for  some 
time  alone,  conspicuous,  by  reason  of  his  unique  position  no 
less  than  by  his  acknowledged  ability,  over  all  others  who 
sat  in  that  body  with  him.  It  is  fitting  that  the  statue  of 
so  distinguished  a  son  of  New  Hampshire  should  stand  in 
the  park  that  surrounds  its  capitol,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  fair  skies  will  smile  auspiciously  upon  the  ceremony  of 
unveiling. 

[From  the  Manchester  (N.  H.)  Press,  August  3,  1892.] 

The  dedication  to-day  at  Concord,  in  the  state  house  yard, 
of  a  statue  to  John  P.  Hale  recalls  a  political  history  in 
New  Hampshire  that  is  unique  and  inspiring.  Of  the 
period  when  John  P.  Hale  flourished  it  may  be  well  said, 
"  There  were  giants  in  those  days,'?  and  among  the  giants 
John  P.  Hale  stood  among  the  foremost. 

Senator  Hale  was  the  pioneer  senator  who  represented 
that  class  of  Democrats  on  whom  the  light,  showing  in  its 
true  colors  the  deep  damnation  of  the  system  of  human 
slavery  in  this  country,  fell  with  convincing  power.  As  the 
first  anti-slavery  United  States  senator,  battling  with  his  for 
mer  associates  in  the  Democratic  party,  and  leading  the  scat 
tered  elements  of  opposition  to  the  national  disgrace  for 
many  years,  Hale  was  at  once  the  national  centre  of  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  and  in  his  state  the  champion  of  an 
awakened  public  conscience. 

His  senatorial  career,  reflecting  the  success  or  failure  of 
his  combats  at  home,  presents  as  much  of  the  romantic  and 
the  inspiring  as  ever  characterized  the  days  of  chivalry  in 
other  fields.  John  P.  Hale  was  a  warrior,  fully  armed  at 
all  points,  and  fighting  valorously  the  battle  for  human 
rights.  No  sentiment  more  inspiring  than  that  uttered  in 
the  Old  North  church  at  Concord  by  him  when  the  world, 


APPENDIX.  225 

the  flesli,  and  the  Hunker  Democracy  were  uniting  for  his 
defeat,  which  looked  inevitable,  was  ever  uttered  in  New 
Hampshire,  and  it  is  worthily  chiselled  on  his  monument: 

"I  wish  no  other  epitaph  than  this  :  Here  lies  one  who  surrendered 
office,  place,  and  power  rather  than  bow  down  and  worship  slavery." 

Nor  is  his  anti-slavery  record  alone  to  be  remembered,  for 
the  efforts  of  Senator  Hale  secured  the  abolition  of  flogging 
in  the  navy  and  of  the  ration  of  grog. 


[From  the  Concord  (N.  H.)  Monitor,  August  4,  1892.] 

It  was  emphatically  a  "  Free' Soil,  Free  Speech,  and  Free 
Men  "  day  Wednesday.  The  dedication  of  the  statue  of 
John  P.  Hale  called  together  such  an  assemblage  as  will 
never  be  witnessed  again  in  New  Hampshire.  Survivors  of 
the  Old  Guard  who  rallied  around  John  P.  Hale  when  he 
wrote  his  famous  letter  to  his  constituents  in  the  opening 
days  of  1845,  concerning  the  annexation  of  Texas,  came 
from  the  hillsides  and  the  valleys  to  do  honor  to  his  name 
and  fame.  Men  in  the  active  walks  of  life,  whose  enthu 
siasm  was  stirred  in  their  early  years  by  the  bugle  blasts 
for  freedom  blown  throughout  our  New  Hampshire  hills  by 
John  P.  Hale,  were  present  in  force.  Young  men,  whose 
knowledge  of  Mr.  Hale  was  learned  from  the  lips  of  their 
fathers  and  the  study  of  the  political  history  of  our  state 
through  one  of  its  most  eventful  periods,  were  also  present 
to  catch  the  inspiration  of  the  hour.  Women,  too,  who 
extended  their  sympathy  to  the  great  leader  in  the  hour  of 
his  need,  and  who  have  an  instinctive  love  for  courageous 
and  conscientious  men  in  the  great  battle  of  right  against 
wrong,  were  present  in  great  numbers  to  listen  to  the 
lengthened  exercises  of  the  occasion.  All  in  all,  it  was  a 
notable  gathering,  and  a  spontaneous  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  one  of  New  Hampshire's  most  distinguished  sons. 
15 


226  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

[From  The  News-Letter,  Exeter,  N.  II.,  August  5,  1892.] 

Senator  Chandler's  monument  to  his  father-in-law,  the 
late  Senator  John  P.  Hale,  was  formally  dedicated  in  the 
state  house  yard  on  Wednesday.  The  statue  was  modelled 
and  cast  in  Munich  at  the  foundry  of  F.  von  Miller,  who 
first  gained  reputation  in  this  country  by  his  admirable 
design  for  the  Tyler  Davidson  fountain  of  Cincinnati.  His 
firm  later  cast  the  Webster  statue  which  is  near  that  of 
Hale  on  the  state  house  grounds.  Mr.  Hale  is  represented 
as  speaking,  holding  in  his  left  hand  a  roll  of  manuscript, 
while  the  right  is  raised  in  gesticulation.  The  head  is  in 
clined  slightly  to  the  left,  with  the  face  nearly  in  front. 
The  expression  is  majestic,  ajid  the  dress  is  copied  from  the 
clothes  he  actually  wore  when  in  the  senate. 

Mr.  Hale  was  brilliant  from  his  boyhood.  He  studied 
law,  and  practiced  it  in  Dover  for  many  years.  He  was 
always  more  of  a  politician  than  legal  student,  however,  and 
was  soon  prominent  in  the  legislature.  He  was  then  an 
orthodox  Democrat.  In  1843  he  was  elected  to  congress, 
and  was  faithful  to  party  interests,  until  it  was  proposed  to 
admit  Texas  as  a  slave  state,  in  all  probability  to  be  cut  up 
into  two  or  three  more  states,  and  so  balance  the  growing 
strength  of  the  free  North. 

His  first  step  was  to  propose  that  only  a  part  of  Texas 
should  be  devoted  to  slavery.  For  this  he  was  reprimanded 
by  his  legislature,  and  virtually  ordered  to  advocate  unqual 
ified  admission.  This  he  refused  to  do.  Then  his  party 
managers  nominated  in  opposition  John  Woodbury,  a  native 
of  Salem,  but  a  resident  of  Exeter,  where  he  had  served  as 
register  of  deeds.  Mr.  Woodbury,  who  lived  in  the  Shute 
house  on  Court  street,  was  a  well  intentioned  but  mentally 
narrow  man.  In  those  days,  a  majority,  not  a  plurality, 
vote  for  congressman,  as  now,  was  required,  and  there  was 
no  choice.  Mr.  Woodbury  gave  up  the  contest  and 
returned  to  Salem.  There  was  a  second  unsuccessful  trial, 
and  it  was  in  the  congress  preceding  election,  that  Mr. 


APPENDIX.  227 

Hale,  in  a  speech  at  Concord,  uttered  the  remarkable  words 
quoted  on  his  monument. 

His  example  proved  contagious,  and  New  Hampshire  had 
henceforth  a  Free  Soil  party,  mainly  recruited  from  the 
Democracy.  Some  of  the  most  important  movements  of 
the  new  departure  occurred  in  Exeter.  The  old  Whigs, 
hitherto  in  a  hopeless  minority,  joined  with  the  seceders, 
and  as  a  result  carried  the  legislature.  In  1846,  Mr.  Hale 
was  elected  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  1848  he 
declined  a  nomination  to  the  presidency  in  favor  of  Martin 
Van  Buren,  the  third  party  candidate.  In  1852  he  ran  for 
that  office,  receiving  nearly  156,000  votes. 

For  a  number  of  years  he  was  the  only  Free  Soil  member 
of  congress,  and  was  constantly  in  a  hopeless  opposition. 
Yet  he  scored  many  an  important  point,  and  was  popular 
with  Southern  members,  both  from  their  conviction  of  his 
honesty  and  from  his  ready  wit.  He  had  the  rare  art  of 
saying  unpleasant  things  without  losing  his  temper,  or 
arousing  that  of  his  hearers.  He  was  not  reflected  at  the 
close  of  his  first  term,  but  the  Know-Nothing  triumph  gave 
him  a  new  chance,  and  he  filled  the  unexpired  term  of 
Charles  G.  Atherton,  deceased.  At  the  close  of  this  he  was 
elected  for  another  full  term,  expiring  in  1865.  He  was 
then  sent  as  minister  to  Spain,  where  he  remained  five  years. 
His  main  work  was  performed  in  congress,  and  his  health 
was  now  breaking.  He  returned  home,  to  die  on  the  19th 
of  November,  1873,  at  the  age  of  sixty  years.  He  gave 
reputation  both  to  his  state  and  the  nation,  and  was  one  of 
the  most  effective  pioneers  in  the  cause  of  freedom.  No 
man  better  deserved  a  statue. 


[From  the  Nashua  (N.  H.)  Telegraph,  August  3,  1892.] 

No  more  fitting  statue  could  adorn  the  grounds  of  the 
state  house  at  Concord  than  that  of  John  Parker  Hale. 
Above  all  things  it  stands  for  a  man.  "  He  was  a  man, 


228  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

take  him  all  in  all."  Among  the  founders  of  the  Free  Soil 
party  Mr.  Hale  was  first  to  attain  a  high  civil  position. 
How  he  reached  that  position  constitutes  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  instructive  episodes  in  the  politics  of  this 
country.  The  son  of  a  lawyer,  educated  at  Exeter  and 
Bowdoin,  and  choosing  the  law  himself  for  a  profession,  hi& 
humor,  eloquence,  and  ability  opened  the  way  to  immediate 
success.  At  twenty-six,  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature; 
at  twenty-eight,  he  was  appointed  United  States  district 
attorney  of  New  Hampshire ;  at  thirty -seven  he  was  elected 
a  representative  in  congress,  and  at  forty  he  was  chosen 
United  States  senator,  which  position  he  held,  altogether^ 
sixteen  years,  covering  the  most  eventful  period  in  this  cen 
tury  in  the  history  of  the  country. 

In  his  early  career  Mr.  Hale  was  a  member  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  It  controlled  absolutely  the  politics  of  the 
state.  The  path  of  preferment  alone  lay  through  its  favor. 
He  had  tasted  its  sweets,  and  there  was  apparently  no 
honor  to  which  he  could  not  aspire  and  reach.  It  was  in 
this  blaze  of  success  that  Mr.  Hale,  as  a  Democratic  mem 
ber  of  congress,  was  instructed  by  the  legislature  to  vote 
for  the  annexation  of  Texas.  John  P.  Hale  no\v  stood  at 
the  parting  of  the  ways.  To  vote  for  the  admission  of 
Texas  and  the  further  extension  of  slavery  was  to  secure 
his  relations  with  the  dominant  party  of  his  state  and  of 
the  nation.  To  vote  almost  alone  against  annexation  was 
to  sever  those  relations,  retire  to  private  life,  and  become 
an  object  of  derision  and  hatred  among  his  old  associates. 
Mr.  Hale  chose  to  give  up  everything  rather  than  bow  the 
knee  to  Baal.  He  was  ostracised,  both  politically  and 
socially.  Long  years  after,  when  other  events  had  crowded 
upon  the  country,  President  Pierce  deliberately  turned  his 
back  upon  Senator  Hale  at  a  White  House  reception. 

Mr.  Hale  became  the  candidate  of  the  Independent 
Democrats  and  Free  Soilers  for  congress,  but  there  was  no 
choice ;  the  same  result  followed  a  second  and  even  a  third 
election. 


APPENDIX.  229 

In  1846,  Mr.  Hale  was  elected  a  member  of  the  legisla 
ture  from  Dover.  By  a  fusion  of  the  Independent  Demo 
crats,  Free  Soilers,  and  Whigs,  he  was  elected  speaker,  and 
later,  at  the  same  session,  United  States  senator  for  six 
years.  The  result  electrified  the  anti-slavery  element  of 
the  entire  country,  and  until  reinforced  by  Sumner,  Chase, 
Seward,  and  Wade,  he  was  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of 
the  anti-slavery  party  in  public  life.  In  all  this  John  P. 
Hale  stood  for  principle  against  the  hope  of  reward.  His 
intrepid  stand  called  forth  many  encomiums,  but  the  best 
was  the  poem  written  by  the  poet  Whittier.  The  original 
of  this  poem  was  placed  in  our  possession  last  winter.  Its 
re-publication  now  seems  most  opportune. 


[FROM  ROCHESTER,  N.  H.,  MR.  KALE'S  BIRTHPLACE. 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT.  ADDRESS 
OF  MAYOR  CHARLES  S.  WHITEHOUSE.] 

GENTLEMEN:  On  Wednesday,  August  3d,  at  Concord, 
in  the  state  house  grounds,  will  be  unveiled,  and  dedicated 
to  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  with  appropriate  cere 
monies,  a  statue  of  John  Parker  Hale ;  a  native  of  Roches 
ter,  a  learned  lawyer,  a  profound  statesman,  a  heroic  defend 
er  of  human  liberty,  and  a  man  of  national  reputation. 

Born  in  Rochester,  March  31st,  1806,  within  a  "  stone's 
throw  "  of  where  we  are  sitting,  educated  in  the  common 
schools  of  this  village  and  at  Exeter  academy,  and  gradu 
ated  at  Bowdoin  college  in  1827,  he  studied  law  with  Jere 
miah  H.  Woodman  of  this  town,  and  with  Daniel  M. 
Christie  of  Dover  and  began  the  profession  of  his  life  in 
the  latter  city,  where  he  ever  after  lived.  He  was  elected 
to  the  state  legislature  from  Dover  in  1832,  when  but  26 
years  old.  In  1843  he  was  elected  to  congress  and  served 
one  term.  In  1846  again  elected  to  the  state  legislature 
from  Dover,  chosen  speaker  of  the  house,  and  by  the  same 
legislature  elected  a  U.  S.  senator  for  a  full  term  of  six 


230  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

years.  Again  elected  for  an  unexpired  term  of  four  years 
in  1855,  and  for  a  full  term  of  six  years  in  1859.  Nominat 
ed  as  the  Free  Soil  candidate  for  the  presidency  in  1847,  but 
declined.  Again  nominated  for  the  presidency  by  the  Free 
Soil  convention  in  1852.  At  the  close  of  his  senatorial 
term  in  1865,  he  was  appointed  minister  to  Spain,  where  he 
remained  five  years,  much  of  the  time  in  ill  health,  and 
died  in  Dover,  November  19th,  1873.  In  the  words  of 
another  distinguished  son  of  Rochester,  Hon.  Jacob  H.  Ela, 
"bearing  with  him  the  blessings  of  millions  who  had  been 
raised  from  the  sorrow  and  degradation  of  human  servitude, 
and  of  millions  more,  who  had  admired  his  unselfish  fidelity 
to  the  cause  he  had  espoused,  and  his  unwavering  integ- 
rity." 

Such  in  the  briefest  manner  possible,  I  have  named  the 
dates  and  principal  events  in  this  distinguished  man's  career, 
who  shed  lustre  and  honor  on  the  nation,  the  state,  and  his 
native  town.  But  to  speak  of  his  high  rank  as  a  lawyer, 
his  power  with  a  jury,  his  skill  in  handling  witnesses,  his 
"keen  wit,  burning  indignation,  and  touching  pathos,"  needs 
an  abler  tongue  than  mine.  As  a  statesman  loyal  to  his 
convictions  of  right,  undaunted  when  standing  solitary  and 
alone  in  the  U.  S.  senate,  fighting  the  encroachments  of  a 
domineering  and  arrogant  slave  oligarchy,  unmindful  of 
the  threats  and  persuasions  of  his  (at  that  time)  political 
associates,  thrusting  aside  the  brilliant  prospects  that 
loomed  up  before  him,  looking  with  the  faith  of  a  prophet 
to  the  ultimate  disenthrallment  of  a  race  from  human  servi 
tude,  he  presents  to  this  generation  a  figure  heroic  and 
grand,  such  as  no  other  state  in  the  Union  can  show,  and 
one  which  the  people  of  his  native  town  can  do  homage  to 
with  commendable  pride. 

On  the  3d  of  August,  his  statue,  the  gift  of  his  distin 
guished  son-in-law,  Senator  William  E.  Chandler,  is  to  be 
publicly  unveiled  and  formally  dedicated  to  the  people  of 
New  Hampshire,  whom  he  loved  so  well  and  served  so  faith- 
fully. 


APPENDIX.  231 

It  seems  to  me  eminently  fitting  that  the  people  of  his 
native  place  through  this  council  should  take  cognizance  of 
this  important  event  by  some  official  action. 

In  council  July  19,  1892,  the  following  resolutions 
were  unanimously  adopted : 

We,  the  representatives  of  the  city  of  Rochester  in  coun 
cil  assembled,  recognizing  the  national  reputation  of  John 
Parker  Hale,  a  native  of  this  town,  his  labors  in  the  cause 
of  human  liberty,  his  profound  statesmanship  and  lofty 
standard  of  political  citizenship,  and  appreciating  the  great 
honor  conferred  upon  his  native  place,  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  mayor  and  city  clerk,  with  such  of  the 
council  as  may  join,  attend  the  public  unveiling  of  his 
statue  at  the  state  house  in  the  city  of  Concord,  the  3d  day 
of  August,  1892. 


FERDINAND   VON    MILLER,  JR. 

Ferdinand  von  Miller,  Jr.,  the  artist  who  designed  the 
statue  of  John  P.  Hale,  was  born  June,  1842,  and  early  put 
to  practical  work.  His  father  was  Stieglmayr's  successor  as 
manager  of  the  Royal  Art  foundry,  and  had,  soon  after 
assuming  charge  and  as  the  result  of  a  fall,  contracted  a 
severe  and  dangerous  lung  trouble,  and  King  Ludvvig  I 
asked  the  sick  man  to  provide  a  suitable  successor  to  him 
self  in  the  management  of  the  works  as  speedily  as  possible. 
Miller  therefore  put  his  two  young  sons,  who  had  scarcely 
finished  the  public  school,  to  work  with  the  artisans.  His 
condition  having  improved,  he  devoted  more  time  to  the 
theoretical  education  of  his  sons,  and  Ferdinand  von  Miller, 
Jr.,  entered  the  Royal  Industrial  institute  (now  the  Royal 
Academy)  at  Berlin  in  1856.  Besides  the  study  of  the 
technical  branches,  he  here  received  from  Professor  Kiss 
his  first  instructions  in  modelling.  Returned  to  Munich,  he 
entered  the  Royal  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  as  a  pupil,  at  the 
same  time  working  part  of  the  day  as  modeller  and  founder 
in  the  Royal  Art  foundry.  His  further  education  in  the 


232  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

arts  was  attended  to  by  Professor  von  Widemann  at  Mun 
ich  ;  later  he  studied  under  Professor  Haenel  in  Dresden,  in 
whose  studio  he  worked. 

In  1863  he  was  sent  to  Paris,  and  the  young  artist  found 
work  in  the  bronze  foundry  of  Barbedienne,  where  he 
worked  two  years.  Afterwards  he  studied  the  systems  of 
the  bronze  foundries  in  London,  Vienna,  and  Florence,  and 
at  last  finished  his  art  studies  during  a  long  stay  at  Rome. 
In  1866,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  Miller  joined  the 
army  as  a  volunteer  and  did  not  return  to  his  art  until  after 
the  conclusion  of  peace.  And  when  the  great  struggle  with 
France  called  the  German  people  to  arms,  he  would  not 
remain  at  home,  and  voluntarily  exchanged  the  tools  of  the 
artist  for  the  sword,  and  served  during  a  large  part  of  the 
campaign  as  lieutenant  in  the  Fifth  regiment  of  chevaux- 
legers.  From  Paris,  where  his  regiment  had  participated 
in  the  siege,  he  returned  to  the  workshop. 

Soon  after,  while  erecting  the  large  fountain  at  Cincin 
nati,  he  had  occasion  to  witness  the  enthusiasm  over  the 
great  German  victories  then  prevailing  among  his  country 
men  in  America. 

While  on  an  interesting  tour  through  the  West  to  San 
Francisco,  Miller  stopped  at  the  Rocky  mountains  to  study 
some  Indian  settlements.  Here  he  learned  to  know  the 
habits  and  modes  of  life  of  these  people,  and  wrote  inter 
esting  descriptions  of  them  to  his  home.  The  life-size 
figure  of  an  Indian  discharging  his  arrow  may  be  considered 
the  result  of  his  observations  on  this  occasion. 

The  people  of  Munich  have  learned  to  know  Ferdinand 
von  Miller,  Jr.,  outside  of  his  art  work,  as  president  of  the 
successful  seventh  meet  of  the  German  Rifle  league,  the 
ceremonies  on  which  occasion  bore  a  decided  artistic  char 
acter ;  also  as  president  of  the  Munich  Artists'  league,  in 
which  capacity  he  directed  the  international  art  exhibition. 
Elected  to  the  city  council,  he  was  chosen  second  chairman. 

Especially  important  among  the  more  recent  productions 
of  Von  Miller  by  reason  of  the  persons  represented  thereby, 


APPENDIX.  233 

are  the  statue  of  King  Ludwig  I,  placed  in  the  Walhalla, 
and  the  equestrian  statue  of  Emperor  William  I,  erected  at 
Metz,  which  two  commissions  he  secured  in  a  prize  contest 
against  many  prominent  competitors. 

Of  his  former  productions  may  be  mentioned  figures  of 
Shakespeare,  Humboldt,  and  Columbus,  made  for  St.  Louis 
in  the  United  States,  and  which  are  widely  known.  He 
has  modelled  up  to  the  present  time  thirty-one  colossal  mon 
uments,  and  is  now  engaged  in  the  work  of  modelling  the 
large  Warrior  monument  for  Munich,  the  equestrian  statue 
above  mentioned  of  Emperor  William,  for  the  city  of  Metz, 
a  colossal  statue  of  Emperor  William  for  the  city  of  Trier, 
and  another  monument  for  Mittenwald. 

The  honorary  distinctions  awarded  to  him  personally  are 
many.  He  has  the  large  gold  medal  of  Bavaria  for  art,  the 
silver  medal  of  the  Munich  exposition  of  1873,  the  first 
medal  awarded  at  the  exhibition  of  art  in  Vienna,  the  gold 
medal  of  Melbourne,  and  the  first  medal  awarded  at  Sidney. 

He  is  an  honorary  member  of  the  academy  of  fine  arts  of 
Munich,  but  has  refused  to  accept  any  honorary  title  offered 
to  him. 

Of  decorations,  he  has  the  Cross,  with  Star,  of  a  Great 
Commander  of  the  Spanish  Order  of  Isabella,  the  Com 
mander's  Cross  of  the  Danish  Danebrog  Order,  the  Com 
mander's  Cross  of  the  Italian  Crown  Order,  the  Knight's 
Cross  of  the  Bavarian  Crown  Order,  the  Knight's  Cross  of 
the  first  class  of  the  Bavarian  Michael  Order,  the  Knight's 
Cross  of  the  third  class  of  the  Prussian  Crown  Order,  the 
Knight's  Cross  of  the  first  class  of  the  Swedish  Vasa  Order, 
the  Knight's  Cross  of  the  first  class  of  the  Wurtemburg 
Fredericks  Order,  and  the  war  medals  of  the  Austria-Prus 
sian  War,  1886,  and  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870-71. 


234  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

THE   MUNICH   ROYAL  ART   BRONZE   FOUNDRY. 

Statement  of  the  monuments  cast  at  the  Royal  Art 
bronze  foundry  at  Munich  in  Bavaria,  omitting  single 
statues. 

There  have  been  made  forty-five  large  monuments  for 
North  and  South  America,  comprising  eighty- four  figures 
all  told.  Among  these  are  three  equestrian  statues  like 
that  of  General  Washington  in  Richmond,  for  which  rider 
and  horse  are  twenty-four  feet  in  height.  They  have  also 
furnished  seven  large  fountains,  among  which  are  those  at 
Cincinnati,  the  Central  park  in  New  York,  and  one  at  Phil 
adelphia. 

For  the  different  states  of  Europe  there  have  been  com 
pleted  in  their  works  220  colossal  monuments  with  a  total 
of  350  figures.  This  includes  seventeen  colossal  equestrian 
statues  and  twenty-three  fountains,  also  the  largest  monu 
ments  of  the  world  that  have  ever  been  cast  in  bronze,  The 
"Bavaria"  of  Munich  and  the  "Germania"  on  the  "  Nie- 
derwald." 

At  all  exhibitions  where  their  statuary  foundry  exhib 
ited,  it  always  received  honorable  distinction  by  being 
awarded  the  first  medal ;  at  London,  1851,  the  large  gold 
medal,  in  Munich  on  each  and  every  exhibition  the  first 
medal,  and  the  same  distinction  in  Vienna  and  Berlin. 

The  statue  of  Lincoln  at  Washington,  with  a  negro 
kneeling  at  his  feet  with  broken  shackles,  was  cast  at 
Munich ;  also  the  Daniel  Webster  in  the  state  house  yard 
at  Concord. 


APPENDIX.  235 

JOHN   PARKER  HALE. 

[Concord  Monitor,  December  16,  1887.] 

This  first  distinctively  anti-slavery  United  States  senator 
was  born  in  Rochester,  N.  H.,  March  31,  1806,  and  died 
in  Dover,  N.  H.,  November  19,  1873.  His  father  was  John 
Parker  Hale,  a  lawyer  in  Rochester.  He  was  educated  at 
Phillips  Exeter  academy,  and  graduated  at  Bowdoin  college 
in  1827,  Franklin  Pierce  being  a  college  associate.  He 
studied  law  with  Jeremiah  H.  Woodman,  of  Rochester,  and 
Daniel  M.  Christie,  of  Dover,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
Strafford  county  bar,  August  20,  1830,  and  commenced 
practice  in  Dover. 

In  March,  1832,  he  was  elected  to  the  state  house  of  rep 
resentatives,  and  took  his  seat  June  6,  and  again  November 
22,  at  the  extra  session.  Franklin  Pierce,  then  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  was  speaker.  On  March  22,  1834,  he  wa& 
appointed  U.  S.  district  attorney  by  President  Jackson ; 
,was  reappointed  April  5,  1838,  by  President  Van  Buren, 
and  removed  for  political  reasons  by  President  Tyler,  June 
17,  1841.  Joel  Eastman  was  appointed  to  succeed  him. 

On  March  8,  1842,  he  was  elected  representative  in  the 
Twenty-eighth  congress,  and  took  his  seat  December  4,. 
1843.  He  opposed  the  twenty-first  rule,  suppressing  anti- 
slavery  petitions,  but  supported  Polk  and  Dallas  in  the 
presidential  canvass  of  1844,  and  was  renominated  on  a  gen 
eral  ticket  with  three  associates.  The  N.  H.  legislature, 
December  28,  1844,  passed  resolutions  instructing  their 
representatives  to  support  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and 
President  Tyler,  in  his  annual  message  of  that  year,  advo 
cated  annexation.  On  January  7,  1845,  Mr.  Hale  wrote 
his  noted  Texas  letter  to  "  The  Democratic  Republican 
electors "  of  New  Hampshire,  which  may  be  found  pub 
lished  in  the  first  number,  dated  May  1,  1845,  of  the  Inde 
pendent  Democrat,  started  at  Manchester  by  Robert  C- 
Wetrnore. 


"236  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

The  letter  is  dated  at  the  House  of  Representatives, 
Washington.  He  says  he  cannot  support  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  that  the  reasons  alleged  by  the  administration 
justifying  it  are  "'eminently  calculated  to  provoke  the  scorn 
of  earth  and  the  judgment  of  heaven ;  and  I  cannot  consent 
by  any  agency  of  mine  to  aid  in  placing  our  beloved  country 
in  such  an  attitude.  When  our  forefathers  bade  a  last  fare 
well  to  the  homes  of  their  childhood,  the  graves  of  their 
fathers,  and  the  temples  of  their  God,  and  ventured  upon 
all  the  desperate  contingencies  of  wintry  seas  and  a  savage 
-coast,  that  they  might  in  strong  faith  and  ardent  hope  lay 
•deep  the  foundations  of  the  temple  of  liberty,  their  faith 
would  have  become  scepticism,  and  their  hopes  despair, 
•could  they  have  foreseen  that  the  day  would  ever  arrive 
when  their  degenerate  sons  would  be  found  seeking  to 
•extend  their  boundaries  and  their  government,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  promoting  freedom,  but  sustaining  slavery." 

The  state  convention  of  his  party  reassembled  at  Concord, 
February  12,  1845,  and,  under  the  lead  of  Franklin  Pierce, 
struck  Hale's  name  from  the  ticket  for  representatives  in 
congress,  and  substituted  that  of  John  Woodbury.  Mr. 
Hale  was  supported  as  an  Independent  candidate.  On 
March  1,  1845  Mr.  Hale  and  one  other  Democrat,  R.  D. 
Davis,  of  New  York,  voted  with  the  Whigs  against  the 
joint  resolution  which  passed  congress  admitting  Texas  to 
the  Union. 

On  March  11,1845,  the  election  took  place:  23,141  votes 
were  necessary  to  a  choice.  The  highest  of  the  three  Dem 
ocratic  candidates  who  were  elected  had  24,904  votes;  the 
highest  Whig  candidate  had  15,177.  Woodbury  had  22,314, 
Joseph  Cilley  had  4,827,  and  Mr.  Hale  had  7,788.  On  the 
second  trial,  September  23,  1845.  Ichabod  Goodwin,  Whig, 
liad  10,055,  Woodbury,  17,936,  and  Hale,  8,355.  On  the 
third  trial,  November  29,  Goodwin  had  12,187  ;  Woodbury, 
19,916 ;  Hale,  9,766.  On  the  fourth  trial,  at  the  annual 
•election,  March  10,  1846,  Goodwin  had  16,617,  Woodbury, 
56,806,  and  Hale,  11,475. 


APPENDIX.  237 

During  these  repeated  trials  Mr.  Hale  thoroughly  can 
vassed  the  state.  At  his  North  church  meeting  in  Concord, 
June  5, 1845,  General  Pierce  and  other  Democrats  attended,, 
and  after  Mr.  Hale  closed  his  impassioned  speech  with  the 
words,  "  People  change,  public  opinion  changes,  and  parties 
change  ;  but  the  principles  of  justice,  moral  obligations,  and 
the  God  who  sits  upon  the  throne  of  the  universe,  never 
change,"  General  Pierce,  being  called  for,  replied  with 
vehemence  and  bitterness.  Mr.  Hale  rejoined  as  follows : 

uAs  I  expected,  and  as  I  anticipated  in  my  former 
remarks,  it  is  all  '  Abolitionism  and  Whiggery.'  I  expected 
to  be  called  ambitious,  and  to  have  my  name  cast  out  as  evil ; 
to  be  traduced  and  misrepresented,  and  have  not  been  dis 
appointed.  If  conscience  and  her  voice  are  to  be  publicly 
held  up  to  ridicule  and  scouted  at  with  impunity,  as  has  just 
been  done  here,  it  matters  but  little  whether  we  are  an 
nexed  to  Texas  or  Texas  annexed  to  us.  In  conclusion  I 
may  be  permitted  to  say  that  the  measure  of  my  ambition 
will  be  full  if  I  may  feel  that  when  my  earthly  career  shall 
be  finished  and  my  bones  be  laid  in  the  grave  under  the 
soil  of  New  Hampshire,  and  my  wife  and  my  children  shall 
repair  thither  to  drop  the  tear  of  affection  to  my  memory, 
they  may  read  on  my  tomb-stone  that  he  who  lies  beneath 
surrendered  office,  place,  and  power  rather  than  bow  down 
and  worship  slavery." 

The  growth  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the  state  was  so 
great  and  rapid  that  at  the  above  election  of  March  10, 
1846,  the  Whigs  and  Independent  Democrats  not  only 
again  defeated  a  choice  of  representatives  in  congress,  but 
also  prevented  any  election  of  governor,  and  elected  a 
majority  of  the  state  legislature.  The  total  vote  was 
55,194 ;  necessary  to  a  choice,  27,598 ;  scattering,  368. 
Nathaniel  S.  Berry  (Free  Soil)  had  10,379;  Anthony 
Colby  (Whig),  17,707;  Jared  W.  Williams  (Democrat), 
26,740. 

The  result  of  this  election  in  1846  gave  great  courage  to 
the  friends  of  freedom  throughout  the  country.  In  The 


238  THE    HALE   STATUE. 

Independent  Democrat  of  March  26,  1846,  is  a  letter  from 
John  G.  Whittier,  dated  Andover,  Mass.,  3d  mo.,  18th, 
1846,  in  which  he  says  of  Mr.  Hale : 

He  has  succeeded,  and  his  success  has  broken  the  spell  which  has 
hitherto  held  reluctant  Democracy  in  the  embraces  of  slavery.  The 
tide  of  anti-slavery  feeling,  long  held  back  by  the  darns  and  dykes  of 
party,  has  at  last  broken  over  all  barriers,  and  is  rushing  down  from 
your  northern  mountains  upon  the  slave-cursed  South,  as  if  Niagara 
stretched  its  foam  and  thunder  the  whole  length  of  Mason  &  Dixon's 
line.  Let  the  first  wave  of  that  northern  flond,  as  it  dashes  against  the 
walls  of  the  Capitol,  bear  thither  for  the  first  time  an  anti-slavery  senator. 

When  the  legislature  met  June  3,  1846,  Mr.  Hale  was 
elected  speaker,  receiving  139  votes  ;  Samuel  Swasey,  118  ; 
scattering,  three.  In  his  address  he  invoked  "that  immortal 
sentiment  which  the  wisdom  of  our  fathers  placed  as  the 
corner  stone  of  our  constitution,  that  all  men  are  created 
equally  free  and  independent."  On  June  5,  Anthony  Colby 
was  elected  governor,  receiving  146  votes,  and  Jared  W. 
Williams,  125.  On  June  9,  Mr.  Hale  was  elected  United 
States  senator  for  the  six  years  to  commence  March  3, 1847, 
receiving  in  the  house  139  votes  against  122  for  all  others, 
and  in  the  senate  eight  against  four  for  others.  On  June 
12,  Joseph  Cilley  was  elected  to  fill  the  existing  vacancy, 
created  by  the  resignation  of  Levi  Woodbury  to  become  an 
associate  justice  of  the  United  States  supreme  court,  and 
Mr.  Cilley  took  his  seat  as  senator  June  22. 

From  his  election  as  United  States  senator  in  1846,  to  the 
close  of  his  last  term  in  1865,  Mr.  Hale  was  a  prominent 
Free  Soil  and  Republican  leader.  On  October  20, 1847,  he 
was  nominated  for  president  by  a  National  Liberty  conven 
tion  at  Buffalo,  with  Leicester  King  of  Ohio  for  vice-presi 
dent,  but  declined  the  nomination  and  supported  Mr.  Van 
Buren,  who  was  nominated  at  the  Buffalo  convention  of 
August  9,  1848,  by  a  majority  of  22,  Mr.  Hale  receiving 
180  votes. 

On  December  6,  1847,  he  took  his  seat  in  the  senate,  which 
contained  32  Democrats  and  21  Whigs.  An  attempt  being 


APPENDIX.  239 

made  to  class  him  as  Whig,  he  repelled  the  classification, 
was  excused  by  a  vote  of  17  to  16  from  serving  on  commit 
tees,  and  he  remained  the  only  Free  Soil  senator  until 
joined  by  Salmon  P.  Chase  on  December  3,  1849,  and  by 
Charles  Sumner  on  December  1,  1851.  Mr.  Hale  com 
menced  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question,  in  connection 
with  the  Mexican  War,  on  January  6,  1848,  and  continued 
it  in  frequent  speeches  during  his  whole  term. 

Shortly  after  his  entrance  into  the  senate  he  began  the 
work  of  securing  the  abolition  of  flogging  and  the  spirit 
ration  in  the  navy.  On  July  19,  1848,  he  introduced  a 
resolution  relative  to  punishments  on  shipboard,  and  July 
21  moved  an  amendment  to  the  naval  appropriation  bill 
abolishing  flogging  and  the  spirit  ration ;  but  only  four  sen 
ators  rose  with  him  in  the  affirmative.  On  September  28, 
1850,  however,  he  secured  the  adoption,  on  the  appropria 
tion  for  the  naval  service,  of  the  following  proviso :  "  That 
flogging  in  the  navy,  and  on  board  vessels  of  commerce,  be 
and  the  same  is  hereby  abolished  from  and  after  the  pas 
sage  of  this  act."  But  it  was  not  until  July  14,  1862,  that 
he  accomplished  the  abolition  of  the  spirit  ration  by  a 
clause  as  follows  :  "  From  and  after  the  first  day  of  Septem 
ber,  1862,  the  spirit  ration  in  the  navy  of  the  United  States 
shall  forever  cease,  and  thereafter  no  distilled  spirituous 
liquors  shall  be  admitted  on  board  vessels-of-war,  except  as 
medical  stores,  and  upon  the  order  and  under  the  control  of 
the  medical  officers  of  such  vessels,  and  to  be  used  only  for 
medical  purposes.  From  and  after  the  said  first  day  of  Sep 
tember  next  there  shall  be  allowed  and  paid  to  each  person 
in  the  navy  now  entitled  to  the  spirit  ration  five  cents  per 
day  in  commutation  and  lieu  thereof,  which  shall  be  in 
addition  to  their  present  pay." 

In  1852  Mr.  Hale  was  nominated  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  by 
the  Free  Soil  party  for  president,  with  George  W.  Julian 
as  vice-president,  and  they  received  157,685  votes. 

His  first  senatorial  term  ended  March  4,  1853,  on  which 
<3ay  Franklin  Pierce  was  inaugurated  president.  The  sue- 


240  THE   HALE   STATUE. 

ceeding  winter  Mr.  Hale  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  com 
promise  measures,  however,  again  overthrew  the  Dem 
ocrats  of  New  Hampshire.  They  failed  to  elect  United 
States  senators  in  the  legislature  of  June,  1854,  and  in 
March,  1855,  they  completely  lost  the  state.  On  June  13, 
1855,  James  Bell,  Whig,  was  elected  United  States  senator 
for  six  years  from  March  3,  1855,  and  Mr.  Hale  was  elected 
by  218  votes  against  10 1  for  all  others  for  the  four  years  of 
the  unexpired  term  of  Charles  G.  Atherton,  who  had  suc 
ceeded  him  and  died  in  office.  On  June  9,  1858,  he  was 
reflected  for  a  full  term  of  six  years,  to  end  March  4,  1865. 
On  March  10,  1865,  he  was  confirmed  and  commissioned 
minister  to  Spain,  and  went  immediately  to  that  court.  He 
was  recalled  April  5,  1869,  and  took  leave  July  29,  1869. 

The  above  statement  of  dates  and  statistics  connected 
with  Mr.  Hale's  life  was  prepared  for  Appleton's  Cyclo 
paedia  of  Biography,  and  is  here  printed  as  likely  to  be 
interesting  to  many  readers.  A  most  striking  fact  is  the 
constant  contact  of  Mr.  Hale's  life  with  that  of  Franklin 
Pierce.  They  were  together  at  Bowdoin  college.  In  1832 
both  were  in  the  legislature,  Hale  being  twenty-six  years 
old,  and  Pierce  twenty-eight  and  speaker.  In  1833  Pierce 
entered  the  national  house  of  representatives,  continued 
there  four  years,  was  elected  in  1837  to  the  senate,  and 
remained  until  March  1,  1842.  In  1834  Hale  became 
United  States  district  attorney,  and  held  the  office  until 
1841,  and  was  elected  representative  in  congress  in  1842, 
entering  the  house  shortly  after  Pierce  left  the  senate. 
Up  to  1845  they  associated  and  agreed  in  politics  as  Jack 
son  Democrats,  and  together  in  1844  they  stumped  New 
Hampshire  for  Polk  and  Dallas.  But  when  in  1845  Hale 
left  the  Democracy  on  the  Texas  issue,  Pierce  became  his 
opponent,  and  dictated  his  decapitation  as  a  candidate  for 
reelection  to  the  house,  at  the  convention  of  February  12,. 
1845.  From  that  time  their  lives  were  antagonistic.  In 
1846  Hale  went  to  the  senate,  and  in  1852  was  the  Free 


APPENDIX.  241 

Soil  candidate  for  president  with  a  view  to  defeating  Pierce. 
In  1853,  as  Hale  left  the  senate,  Pierce  entered  the  White 
House  as  president,  having  also  forced  the  nomination  and 
election  of  Charles  G.  Atherton  as  senator  in  Hale's  place. 
But  in  1855,  before  Pierce's  terra  as  president  had  expired, 
Hale,  as  the  successor  of  Atherton,  who  had  died,  again 
appeared  in  his  former  place  in  the  senate  to  assail  the 
administration  of  his  old  friend. 

The  political  separation  of  these  former  associates  was 
signalized  by  their  famous  North  Church  debate  June  5, 
1845.  In  this  discussion  Pierce  bitterly  complained  that 
Hale  had  concealed  his  sentiments  on  Texas  annexation 
while  upon  the  stump  in  the  presidential  canvass  of  1844, 
to  which  complaint  Hale's  reply  was  that  not  until  after 
Polk  had  been  elected  was  the  purpose  avowed  of  bringing 
Texas  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  state.  The  parallel  careers 
of  these  two  distinguished  sons  of  New  Hampshire,  both 
orators  of  graceful  and  fervid  eloquence,  who  gave  their 
lives,  one  to  the  service  of  slavery  and  the  other  to  the 
advocacy  of  freedom,  one  of  whom  became  a  pro-slavery 
president,  and  the  other  an  anti-slavery  senator,  are  an 
interesting  study  for  the  young  men  of  their  native  state. 

w.  E.  C. 


INDEX, 


Letter  of  Donation,  Description  of  Statue,  Names  of  Persons 

attending  the  Unveiling,     ......  3 

UNVEILING    CEREMONIES. 

ADDRESS  : 

Councillor  Ramsdell,  Chairman,     .....  9 

UNVEILING  : 

John  Parker  Hale  Chandler,  .         .         .         .         .13 

ADDRESSES  : 

Presentation,  Senator  Chandler,     .....  13 
Acceptance,  Governor  Tuttle,         »         .         .         .         .18 

ORATION  : 

Daniel  Hall,          .         . 21 

ADDRESSES  : 

Galusha  A.  Grow,         .         .         .                        >»  .  '       .  109 

George  S.  Boutwell,      .         .         .         .         ....  112 

Frederick  Douglass,       ........  116 

Augustus  Woodbury,     .         .         .         .         .         .         .  124 

Amos  Hadley,       .         .         .     ;  ... ; ;                .         .         .  131 
Alonzo  H.  Quint,  .         .         .         .         ,         .         .         .139 

John  W.  Hutchinson,    ....                   .  145 

APPENDIX. 

LETTERS,  INTERVIEWS,  AND  COMMENTS: 

John  G.  Whittier, 151 

Frederick  Douglass,       .         .         .         .         .         .         .  152 

Nathaniel  S.  Berry,       .         .         .  .         .         .152 

A.  P.  Putnam, 154 

Larkin  D.  Mason,          .......  157 

Chester  B.  Jordan, 159 

Caleb  A.  Wall,      ...                  ....  159 


244  INDEX. 

LETTERS,  INTERVIEWS,  AND  COMMENTS: 

John  D.  Lyman,   ........  161 

Sylvester  Dana,    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .164 

Henry  P.  Rolfe, 167 

Parker  Pillsbury, 172 

Thomas  W.  Brown,  funeral  services,       ....  177 

Augusta  (Me.)  Journal, 193 

Camden  (Me.)  Herald, 194 

Portland  (Me.)  Press, 196 

Boston  Advertiser,  by  F.  B.  Sanborn,    ....  197 

Worcester  Spy,     ........  200 

Haverhill  (Mass.)  Bulletin, 201 

Boston  Traveller, ....                                     .  203 

Boston  Journal,     .         .          .         .         .         .         .          .  204 

Boston  Herald,      . 205 

Boston  News,        .         .         .         .         .  .         .206 

Hartford  Courant,         ....                  .  206 

New  York  Times,          ...                                   .  207 

Brooklyn  Eagle, .210 

Utica  Herald, .  211 

New  York  Tribune, 211 

New  York  Press, .212 

Syracuse  Journal,           .......  212 

Philadelphia  Press,        ....                           .  213 

Portland  (Oregon)  Oregonian, 215 

Seattle  (Wash.)  Post-Intelligencer,         .         .         .         .217 

Omaha  Bee, 220 

Manchester  Mirror,        .......  220 

Manchester  Union,         ...         .         .         .         .  223 

Manchester  Press,          .......  224 

Concord  Monitor,           .......  225 

Exeter  News-Letter,      .         .         .         .         .         .         .  226 

Nashua  Telegraph,        .                  .                  ...  227 

Charles  S.  Whitehouse, 229 

BIOGRAPHICAL  AND  DESCRIPTIVE: 

Ferdinand  von  Miller,  Jr.,     ......  231 

The  Munich  Royal  Art  Bronze  Foundry         .         .         .  234 
John  Parker  Hale,  by  Win.  E.  Chandler,       .         .         .235 


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A  f\       "">IIIM  "in  III II  'I' I  Nil  I!  Ill  II  III  Hill 


